-The Indian Express The cash crunch is hindering the state governments’ Relief efforts at every step. Centre must urgently provide additional foodgrain to poorest states for expanding PDS coverage. As the monsoon advances, there is an urgent need to consider what can be done to prevent hunger during the rainy season — the hardest time of the year for poor families in large parts of rural India. The monsoon is expected to...

-The Indian Express Among the states, UP has said 21.69 lakh workers had returned. Bihar has said 10 lakh had returned; Maharashtra has said 11 lakh have left the state. Gujarat said 20.5 lakh had gone back home. A problem in dealing with issues relating to migrant labour after the lockdown was announced on March 25 has been the absence of firm estimates of the number of displaced. Various govt estimates: Last week,...

-Hindustan Times Responses have been elusive on critical issues, including health care infra, PM Cares fund, schemes, and migrants In the lethal jaws of a pandemic, when lives and livelihoods are at stake, the information law of a democracy is expected to live up to its responsibilities — to empower the citizens and to ensure transparency and accountability. Free flow of information is an essential component of crisis management. And this is...

-The Hindu True self-reliance won’t come from relentless industrialisation, but from localisation and decentralisation, as demonstrated by these remarkable stories of empowered rural communities Not so long ago, Dalit women farmers in Telangana used to face hunger and deprivation. Today, they have contributed foodgrains for pandemic Relief. Farmers on the Tamil Nadu-Karnataka border have been sending organic produce to Bengaluru even during the lockdown. And Adivasi villages in central India are using...

-The Hindu This is an extreme underestimation, going by the other assessments made by Central and State governments, including Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s estimate of 8 crore stranded migrants. The Chief Labour Commissioner’s (CLC) office has counted over 26 lakh migrant workers stranded across the country, of which 10% are in Relief camps or shelter homes, while 43% are in situ at workplaces and 46% are in other clusters. This is an extreme...