-The Indian Express Jean Dreze writes: Releasing food is all the more crucial as the emergency cash transfers proposed by the finance minister are likely to have severe limitations. How would you feel if a family were to let its weakest members starve, even as the house’s granary is full to the brim? That is what is happening in India today. Everyone knows that the country has large food stocks, and that some...
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Amartya Sen writes: Overcoming a pandemic may look like fighting a war, but the real need is far from that
-The Indian Express Amartya Sen writes: Tackling a social calamity is not like fighting a war which works best when a leader can use top-down power to order everyone to do what the leader wants — with no need for consultation. In contrast, what is needed for dealing with a social calamity is participatory governance and alert public discussion. We have reason to take pride in the fact that India is the...
More »There Was a Time ‘Fake News’ Was Used to Target ‘Hindus’ for Spreading Diseases -Anjana Prakash
-TheWire.in Racist and communal poison, backed by a section of the media and intelligentsia, has long been a staple of politics. In these days of COVID-19, I am spending a lot of time catching up on history and it is clear that there are deep connections between the evils of our present times and what happened in days gone by. Whenever there is a clash between truth and belief, there is politics...
More »Utilise FCI stock for those who have ration cards and those who don’t -Siraj Hussain and Ajit Ranade
-The Indian Express The states must engage NGOs, factories and charities including religious organisations to raise funds for meeting the expenditure on milk, eggs, cooking oil and vegetables, and even soaps and sanitisers. Nearly one-fifth of India’s labour force consists of internal migrants. As per the 2011 census, a quarter of the urban population consists of migrants. These tend to be predominantly male, from the less developed northern states, in the lower...
More »Survey shows 42% have no ration left for the day, let alone duration of lockdown -Seema Chishti
-The Indian Express/ PTI The immediate relief that migrant workers wanted was rations, then a promise of monthly support. About 83 per cent of them worried that they would not be able to find work at the end of the shutdown. New Delhi: A survey of 3,196 migrant construction workers whose livelihood has been disrupted after the announcement of the 21-day lockdown over COVID-19 paints a dismal picture of migrant lives, especially...
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