-Open Letter from the Right to Food Campaign to the Prime Minister of India dated 19th March, 2020 The Right to Food Campaign on 19 March, 2020 has issued an open letter to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. In its letter to the PM, civil society activists have asked the government for ensuring food security and other rights-based entitlements for the poor, vulnerable and the informal sector workers in the wake...
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Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO’s representative in India, interviewed by Abantika Ghosh (The Indian Express)
-The Indian Express India’s response has been comprehensive and robust. Right from the onset, the government has taken things very seriously, as reflected in the high-level of political commitment, including by the Prime Minister himself, says Dr Henk Bekedam. While India is yet to adopt the World Health Organisation’s prescription of “test test test” against the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO’s representative in India, tells The Indian Express that...
More »Mumbai washes its hands of lakhs, do’s & don’ts don’t matter here -Kavitha Iyer
-The Indian Express While Maharashtra has seen 45 cases of infections and a death from coronavirus, there has been no evidence of community transmission. But in slums such as these, with population densities among the highest anywhere in the world, social distancing is an impossibility. Mumbai: Urmila Maurya, in her early thirties and a mother of three, can put into practice none of the protective measures against COVID-19 that are advised by...
More »Informal sector workers don’t have the privilege to stay at home & work online in the time of COVID-19
After the outbreak of COVID-19 in China during early January this year and its dissemination globally within a few days, health experts have suggested ways to check its spread exponentially among the rest of the population. In the age of internet connectivity, work-from-home and self-isolation have been advised as solutions to ensure social distancing and avoid large-scale social gatherings. Experts have asked governments and private enterprises to keep people at...
More »India’s COVID-19 worry: too few are being tested -Penny MacRae
-The Telegraph Under-estimation of cases, inadequate number of ICU beds, old test kits add to challenge India could soon face its moment of reckoning with the COVID-19 pandemic and the question is whether the country, with its rickety, under-resourced healthcare system, will be able to cope. The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India hit 151 Wednesday and, so far, there have been three deaths. On the surface, those numbers look extraordinarily...
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