-Hindustan Times A perusal of UAPA shows how its terms — for example, “membership” of unlawful or terrorist organisations — can be stretched to a boundless degree, allowing the State to persecute individuals for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, possessing the wrong kind of literature, or meeting the wrong kind of people, without anything further. The recent judgment of the Delhi High Court (HC), granting bail to three...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Delhi communal riots: Facebook’s role ‘must be looked into’, says SC -Krishnadas Rajagopal
-The Hindu Business Line The Supreme Court adds that the panel cannot behave like a prosecution agency The Supreme Court on Thursday said Facebook ought to appear before the Delhi Legislative Assembly Committee of Peace and Harmony, enquiring into the circumstances leading to the February 2020 communal riots. Investigation of a socially complicated problem is within the domain of the legislature, the court noted. A judgement pronounced by Justice S.K. Kaul, however, said the...
More »Investigating gender disparities in India’s vaccine rollout -Soumya Kapoor Mehta and Steven Walker
-Hindustan Times A primary barrier to getting women vaccinated is the limited understanding of the disparate impacts Covid-19 vaccines have on them While less than 20% of India’s adult population has received their first Covid-19 vaccine dose, clear gender disparities have arisen in the rollout. A recent analysis by Ashoka University shows that for every 100 men, around 86 women were vaccinated. This is significantly lower than India’s sex ratio of approximately...
More »Why vaccine hesitancy should not be tackled through a carrot and stick policy -Sarojini Nadimpally
-Scroll.in What is needed is better public health communication. Along with an acute shortage of Covid-19 vaccines, with only 3.3% of its population fully vaccinated, India is also witnessing vaccine hesitancy. Anecdotal evidence suggests people, particularly in the rural and tribal areas, are not coming forward to take the vaccines. While it is imperative to address vaccine hesitancy, superficial attempts that fail to understand its structural causes could lead to more damage. As...
More »A fatal war on transparency -Aniket Aga and Chitrangada Choudhury
-The Hindu Official secrecy on pandemic policies aggravates a crisis In August 2020, the Modi government constituted the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) as a nodal agency on all matters related to vaccine administration and rollout. Asked under the Right to Information (RTI) Act for details of the NEGVAC’s meetings, the Health Ministry, which anchors the expert group, replied that it does not know where the concerned documents...
More »