-The Hindu Despite the debilitating pandemic, state investment in the health sector remains deeply inadequate. On May 18 this year, India recorded 4,529 deaths from COVID-19, the highest daily death toll recorded in the world after the United States in January saw 4,468 deaths. As India combats the pandemic, its neighbours are experiencing spillover from the menacing second wave. The virus has swept through Nepal, while Sri Lanka added as many as...
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Covid-19 and the disease of inequality -Yamini Aiyar
-Hindustan Times The second wave will deepen inequality. Expand support to states, universalise PDS, and ramp up MGNREGS now Abandoned by the State that insisted on locking down, refusing to recognise the damage done to their livelihoods, India’s workers asserted their rights and made themselves heard by Walking home in March 2020. The long march home was emblematic of the suffering and hardship unleashed by the first wave. A year later, it is...
More »Digital divide curbs vaccine access in rural Telangana -Ravi Reddy and R Avadhani
-The Hindu Savvy urban residents book slots in rural PHCs while villagers sans smart phones are unable to register The government-mandated online registration process for COVID-19 vaccination has starkly exposed the digital divide in Telangana, with the Internet savvy urban population cornering access while the poorer, less aware rural people are left out as the second phase is rolled out. Unable to find online slot in the Twin Cities, several urban residents are...
More »Future of migrant kids uncertain amid spike -Manoj Sharma
-Hindustan Times There has been limited assessment of the pandemic’s wider effects on the children of migrants. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court, in response to a petition filed by NGO Child Rights Trust, asked for data from all states and Union Territories on children of migrant workers. Nitin Kumar’s eyes were full of despair as he waited along with his parents for a bus to Hardoi at Anand Vihar bus station on...
More »Jobless growth: the pandemic has revealed India’s crisis of unemployment -Himanshu
-The Indian Express The current model of economic growth prioritises capital over labour and is unlikely to resolve the unemployment crisis. COVID-19 infections are once again on the rise with daily infections crossing 60,000 per day last week. This is considerably higher compared to the reported infections during the same period last year when the numbers were less than 500 per day. What is obvious is that the pandemic is far from...
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