-Scroll.in The focus is on providing food grains to the very poor as against supporting that with more funding for existing nutrition-focussed welfare programmes. Data collated from a recent paper -studying the impact of the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020 by Jean Dreze and Anmol Somanchi reflect the grim condition of India’s looming malnutrition crisis. In a co-authored essay around April 2020, we had argued how the “hidden costs of this pandemic” (and the...
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Vulnerable and in the discomfort zone -Preeti Mehra
-The Hindu Business Line The pandemic toll on the mental health of children, including instances of PTSD, has received too little attention “I love my father, but why does he behave like this?” asks a 13-year-old from a slum in Delhi who was sexually abused during the first lockdown. She and her mother were also beaten up often. The mother, a daily wager, was compelled to take the traumatised child with her...
More »Activists seek 50 more days of work under MGNREGA -Priscilla Jebaraj
-The Hindu Over 2 lakh households have exhausted quota. More than 2 lakh rural households have already completed their guaranteed 100 days of employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme within the first three months of the financial year, according to the scheme’s database. This is higher than seen at the same time last year, indicating even higher demand for work than 2020-21’s unprecedented levels. Given the high...
More »The Challenge Of Saying How Many Excess Deaths Could Be Due To Covid-19 -Rukmini S
-IndiaSpend.com Five states saw over 460,000 excess deaths in the first five months of 2021, but the official Covid-19 toll in these states in this period accounts for only 6% of these excess deaths. How many of the remaining 94% are 'missed' Covid-19 deaths will not be easy to disentangle. Chennai: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu saw over 460,000 excess deaths in the first five months of 2021,...
More »The rural economy can jump-start a revival -Himanshu
-The Hindu The Government needs to reverse its neglect and policy missteps as key indicators show the sector has resilience The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic could be slowly receding with a decline in the official estimates of daily infections and deaths. The economy is also very gradually getting back to normal, with many States beginning to ease some of the restrictions imposed in their lockdowns. However, the challenge of an...
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