-TheWire.in Treating occupational safety for sanitation workers as a technical issue about personal protective equipment is not enough to understand the various elements involved, from changing behaviour to the larger context of sanitation workers’ lives. At 8 am every morning, Murali, a de-sludging operator bids his two children goodbye and leaves his house. He cleans his vehicle, removes and tucks his chappals in a corner of his truck, and begins his workday. As...

-TheWire.in The Kanpur Nagar Police Commissionerate has tweeted on the matter, seeking "forgiveness" and noting that this will be a "big lesson" for it. New Delhi: A woman reportedly died of post-COVID-19 complications in Kanpur on her way to the hospital while her vehicle was caught in traffic on Friday, June 25, because of diversions put up across the city for President Ram Nath Kovind’s convoy. The victim, 50-year-old Vandana Mishra, was the...

-TheWire.in Despite the fact that India's financial inclusion infrastructure has a complex mix of self-help groups and small private banks offering credit to the poor, it has failed to deliver during the pandemic. When the pandemic struck, policymakers and prominent economists across the world called for financial infrastructures to be strengthened. They argued this would support the efficient channeling of relief through cash transfers or cheap loans. India was no exception to...

-TheWire.in If the current data is anything to go by, the low death figures reflect poor testing and recording rather than some natural “protection” from severe disease in rural India. Many rural areas were hit hard during India’s devastating recent COVID-19 surge. The scale of this rural epidemic remains largely hidden in official figures. But a flood of news reports tell a tale of infection sweeping rapidly through villages, high mortality, minimal...

-TheWire.in Professor Andrew Pollard tells Karan Thapar why India's 12-16 week Covishield gap makes sense, but refutes claim a single dose AstraZeneca vaccine is likely soon. The Chief Investigator of AstraZeneca and the Director of the Oxford Vaccine Group has, in this interview, addressed the present controvery over how long the gap between two doses of Covishield should be, clearly endorsing the Centre’s present policy of a 12-16 week gap. Professor Sir Andrew...