-Newsclick.in It was ok for all of us to just label them as “migrant workers” and take shelter in the political correctness of this term since it might so easily have been, “these poor people”. I have often wondered how little of our public discourse is about the poor and the lives they lead. Considering the vast number of people who eke out an existence in our country that bears comparison with...
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An invisible humanitarian crisis in India -Harsh Mander
-The Hindu The state and the rich and middle classes remain indifferent as millions slip into chronic hunger and intense poverty India’s labouring poor have largely disappeared even from the inner pages of newspapers and from television screens. It is as though, after the country has gradually unlocked and most migrants have returned home, the wrenching distress of mass hunger and sudden unemployment that racked their lives has somehow passed. The reality...
More »Right to Food Campaign urges the Hon’ble Minister for Women & Child Development to restart ICDS for children and pregnant and lactating women
-Press release by Right to Food Campaign, dated August 6th, 2020 The Right to Food Campaign has sent a memorandum to the Hon'ble Minister of Women and Child Development Ms. Smriti Zubin Irani demanding to restart the hot cooked meal and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) scheme. It may be noted that most services for women and children have been shut down since March this year i.e. since the time when...
More »Shutdown of schools hits dairy and poultry farmers: Loss of mid-day meal market for milk and eggs -Harish Damodaran
-The Indian Express An example is the Karnataka government’s Ksheera Bhagya scheme, which offers free milk over and above the MDM food entitlement. The shutting down of schools due to Covid-19 is affecting not only children, now unable to access cooked nutritional food under the Mid Day Meal (MDM) scheme, but also farmers for whom it provided an assured market. An example is the Karnataka government’s Ksheera Bhagya scheme, which offers free milk...
More »Lockdown further impoverishes those who were living on the edges of existence even during normal times, finds a new report
A recent survey that was conducted through telephonic interviews among 1,405 respondents across the states of Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan and Jharkhand reveals the precarious conditions of workers nearly 45 days after the announcement of COVID-19 lockdown. The report entitled Labouring Lives: Hunger, Precarity and Despair amid Lockdown tries to understand the extent (and depth) of job loss and hunger 45 days after the lockdown. Hunger and...
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