-Down to Earth Lower caste communities are ostracised and denied Access to rehabilitation facilities during natural disasters The malpractices of untouchability and caste-based discrimination, although banned in India, continues unabated in several districts of Odisha. During a natural calamity, they turn into a greater menace as the ostracised people are denied Access to rehabilitation facilities. Dalit communities Keuta, Kandara and Siara in Puri district, who sell fish to survive, suffered a major financial...

-Counterview.net On August 18, 2021, a petition regarding delay in appointment of information commissioners under the RTI Act was heard by the Supreme Court. The bench of Justices S. Abdul Nazeer and Krishna Murari heard the matter. During the hearing, it was pointed out that despite the judgment of the SC, the Union of India and several states had failed to fill the vacancies in the information commission leading to a...

The recently released quarterly Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) data broadly confirms the dip in employment and jobs during the countrywide lockdown period, followed by a certain degree of recovery in the post-lockdown months last year as have been indicated by various survey-based studies and research papers. The quarterly bulletin on PLFS provides data on key employment and unemployment indicators i.e. Unemployment Rate (UR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR) and Labour...

-CaravanMagazine.in ASHA workers demand hikes, regularisation and health insurance amid COVID-19 An ASHA—accredited social health activist—is a community-health worker, instituted by the union ministry of health and family welfare as a part of India's National Rural Health Mission. The ASHAs were primarily meant to help rural and semi-urban communities gain Access to health-related services. According to the health ministry's recent data, there are at least 10,22,265 ASHAs in the country. During the...

-Press release by Centre for Science and Environment dated 9th August, 2021 The latest IPCC report confirms that we can no longer lose time in prevarication or in finding new excuses not to act, including empty promises of net zero by 2050. We bring you an appraisal of the report’s findings by CSE director general Sunita Narain * The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases the first part of its sixth...