-Newsclick.in The Public Distribution System is an essential social security measure, especially during a crisis like Covid-19, but biometric authentication is a roadblock. Over the past few weeks, the situation for daily wage earners has been particularly dismal. A telephonic survey with over a 100 people in rural areas of six States (Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh) by Road Scholarz, conducted in two phases (26-31 March and...

-The Hindu Several incidents of migrants walking on roads despite special trains facility Ahmedabad: Chaos resulting from lack of preparations continues to mark the exodus of the migrant labourers from the hubs in Gujarat. On Sunday also, several incidents of migrants walking on roads were reported despite special trains were being arranged to their native places. On Saturday, several incidents of clashes between the migrants and the police were reported from inter-State checkposts...

-Outlook India While nationwide lockdown is unavoidable and is a wise decision to contain the spread of the virus, there is a need to address the possibility of an unintended baby boom among poor and vulnerable groups. With most countries following nationwide lockdown or stay at home orders due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, there has been a debate on a possible unintended baby boom across the world. Although many demographers from...

-Newsclick.in The lockdown has got the government talking about agri ‘reforms’ again, but the exploitation of India’s weakest farmers continues unchecked. It is a cruel irony that in the sixth week of the nationwide lockdown, the government is talking up omnibus agriculture “reforms” as if they can mitigate the growing distress in rural India. Reforms, no doubt, implies stricter compliance with online registration and payment rules, more focus on market-based pricing, and...

-The Hindu It was up to the States to decide how to fund this cost, States the national transporter. The railways on Monday said the “sending States” should pay them for transporting migrant workers on Shramik Specials and it was up to them to decide how to fund this cost. “As per the guidelines issued, the sending State will pay the consolidated fare to Railways. Sending State may decide to bear this cost...