-The Hindu The State has managed the crisis by building on legacies of egalitarianism, social rights and public trust The global coronavirus pandemic is a natural, albeit brutal experiment. Just about every part of the world has been impacted and the range of responses we are seeing at the national and subnational levels reveal not only existing inequalities but also the political and institutional capacity of governments to respond. Nowhere is this...

-The Hindu Even though a record crop is expected this year, the lockdown may have robbed farmers of the chance to reap profits. There are no migrant labourers to help with harvesting and procurement, and no transport facilities to take the produce to markets in many parts of the country, report Vikas Vasudeva and Priscilla Jebaraj Jagtar Singh is a man in a hurry. It’s April 15, and with temperatures starting to...

-The Indian Express Prime Minister demanded discipline and sacrifice from the people, while offering no measures to alleviate distress of those who have lost their dignity and livelihoods. Millions of migrant workers, and other vulnerable groups, have lost their livelihoods, income security, and sense of dignity in three short weeks. They knew that they were vulnerable to the virus, but for them, the cure of an extended lockdown is already worse than...

-ThePrint.in Migrant workers protested in Kottayam on 29 March demanding to be sent back home. The state changed its strategy in dealing with them and has since seen no such protests.   New Delhi: It was a blot on the much-touted Kerala Covid-19 response model. On 29 March, hundreds of migrant labourers flooded the streets of Kottayam town demanding that they be sent back to their home States.    The protest caught the...

-The Hindu Business Line With bumper harvests, farmers are forced to sell the stocks to middlemen for a pittance or let them go to waste. Better integration of markets, development and maintenance of storage facilities could help avoid this problem Farmers are the worst hit due to the coronavirus lockdown, unable to harvest crops and sell the harvested produce in the market. The dairy farmers of Assam and Karnataka; and vegetable, fruit...