-Countercurrents.org In the death of Fr Stan Swamy on July 5, 2021, who was an “under trial” detainee languishing in the custody of the authorities, India has lost a courageous campaigner for adivasi Rights. The manner in which the 84-year old Jesuit priest was forced to die has shaken the conscience of the nation. What hurts the feelings of any one with a true sense of justice is that the authorities...

-Hindustan Times As many as 651 children lost their mothers and 1, 311 lost their fathers to the viral infection. The Delhi government has decided to pay compensation of ₹2,500 per month to such children. More than 2,000 children in Delhi have lost either or both their parents to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) since the pandemic hit the country last year in May, according to a survey conducted by the Delhi Commission...

The rise in COVID-19 daily new cases and daily new deaths compelled many state governments to impose local level lockdowns during April-May 2021. As of 20th April, 2021, partial lockdowns were noticed in 10 states across the country and complete lockdown was imposed in Delhi. As of 8th May, 2021, nearly the entire country was under complete lockdown as a result of either partial lockdowns and night curfews or complete...

-CBGAIndia.in India’s response to the pandemic has depended heavily on the exploited labour of women workers, most of them from marginalised backgrounds. These are ASHAs or Accredited Social Health Activists, the cadre of frontline health workers that has been mobilised for everything from door-to-door surveys, distributing medicine kits, measuring oxygen saturation, monitoring containment zones and spreading awareness about vaccines. 70,000 such women recently went on strike in Maharashtra demanding higher pay,...

-Firstpost.com For many deafblind people, their paths and lived experiences are steeped in inaccessibility and hurdles — worsening in the times of COVID-19. What is normal, anyway? In this monthly column, Srinidhi Raghavan explores the understanding of bodies-minds and navigating spaces as disabled, chronically ill and sick people. Read more from the series here. For many of us in society, we often see disabled people as either ‘helpless’ or ‘inspirational’. For the longest...