-Down to Earth The workers reportedly began their journey on March 23, 2020, with some accompanied by their wives, children   Thousands of migrant workers in Gujarat are undertaking long journeys to their native villages on foot. The workers, mostly tribals, travelled upwards of 250 kilometres, in the absence of public transport. Migrant workers are forced to take this step after the Union government initiated a janata (people’s) curfew and subsequently, a 21-day...

-The Hindu In their response to the pandemic, countries have hardly evinced concern about the health and well-being of workers The coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease is the first neoliberal virus in the world. To say so is not to reduce its dangers — particularly to the already vulnerable, such as the old, the ill or the poor (who cannot isolate without starving) — but to criticise how it has been...

-The Indian Express Over the last few weeks, many daily wage labourers and part of the unorganised or informal sector could not find work because of the lockdown. AT LEAST six top corporate leaders are said to have recommended to Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the government should make payments to unorganised sector workers since they bear the brunt of the severe lockdown measures to arrest the spread of Covid-19 disease. N Chandrasekaran,...

-Scroll.in One of India’s most renowned epidemiologists cautions against unsustainable lockdowns and says community participation is the key to fight the disease. Jayaprakash Muliyil is one of India’s foremost epidemiologists, with decades of experience in the study of infectious diseases. The former principal of the Christian Medical College in Vellore spoke to Scroll.in about India’s response to the coronavirus outbreak. He said the stage of community transmission, when the source of infection for...

-The Hindu The Kerala government has been successful in putting the public health sector back on the rails Every year after the Union Budget, newspapers carry articles critiquing the abysmal allocation for the health sector. As the COVID-19 threat looms, doctors, healthcare professionals and state institutions have been regularly issuing guidelines on the precautions to be taken. However, the ubiquitous fault lines of India’s public healthcare infrastructure are being laid bare as...