-Press release by National Coalition on the Education Emergency (NCEE) dated January 22, 2022 Schools in Bengaluru remain closed while malls, theatres, pubs and restaurants have been kept open. As of 21 January, the weekend curfew has been lifted as well. The decision to keep schools closed is having catastrophic consequences on children. Schools had only recently started opening after remaining mostly closed since March 2020. Their being closed again spells...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Understanding the NCRB data on suicides with caution
The increase in the total number of suicides committed in India during 2020 in comparison to the previous years has hit the headlines recently. While some media commentators have stated that the economic distress (caused by job loss, income loss, failure of business, and growing hunger, among other things) in 2020 could have led to more suicides being committed, others have said that home isolation and deteriorating mental health (associated...
More »Are we witnessing depeasantisation in Indian agriculture?
The newly released Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India (NSS 77th Round) establishes the fact that the farm households are more and more relying on wage incomes instead of 'net incomes from crop cultivation' for their livelihoods. In Marxian lexicon, proletarisation (a term that we can loosely use for depeasantisation) refers to the process in which the farmers/ tillers are...
More »NREGA activists ask the Government to strengthen the social audit system under MGNREGA
-Press release by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha dated 1st October, 2021 On 1st October 2021, civil society organisation 'NREGA Sansgharsh Morcha' sent a letter to the Minister of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj putting together the recommendations related to social audits in MGNREGA. In its letter, it has mentioned that the Social Audit Units (SAUs) in various states do not have sufficient staff and have not been allocated adequate funds, among others....
More »UN Food Systems Summit marginalizes human rights and disappoints, say experts
-United Nations Human Rights Office of The High Commissioner GENEVA 22 SEPTEMBER 2021: On the eve of the Food Systems Summit, UN human rights experts are deeply concerned that the event will not be a “people’s summit” as promised. They are worried that the Summit will instead leave behind the most marginalized and vulnerable people. According to the three human rights experts, who were involved in the Summit preparation, “The Summit claims...
More »