Urgent action needed to curb deadly air pollution in South Asia A new report by the World Bank states that Nine out of the world’s 10 cities with the worst air pollution are in South Asia. Ambient air pollution is a public health crisis for South Asia, not only imposing high economic costs but also causing an estimated 2 million premature deaths each year. The health impacts of air pollution range...
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Hit hard by cracker bans, Sivakasi’s fireworks workers are missing a transition plan -Hariprasad Radhakrishnan
-TheNewsMinute.com Caught between denialism and short-sightedness, vulnerable communities in Sivakasi bear the brunt of clampdowns due to air pollution. At the strike of a gavel in Delhi, lights go out in Sivakasi. When states located thousands of kilometres away place curbs, sales turn out to be a damp squib in the fireworks capital. Year after year, about 6.5 lakh people in Sivakasi dependent on the fireworks industry suffer from rude market shocks because...
More »Trying and testing the car formula -Rukmini S & Samarth Bansal
-The Hindu While the Delhi government’s spirit of experimentation is to be lauded, the right lessons need to be learnt from the odd-even trial. It is now amply clear that no credible data supports the Delhi government’s claim that the odd-even trial has reduced pollution or improved air quality. In fact, the quality of air in the first week of January was worse compared to previous weeks. Data obtained from the National...
More »Govt planning to relax laws to allow children below age 14 to work in select family businesses -Chetan Chauhan
-Hindustan Times The government plans to relax child labour laws and allow children below the age of 14 to work in select family enterprises if it doesn't hamper their education, saying it wants to encourage learning at home as it leads to entrepreneurship. A draft provision in the Child Labour Prohibition Act says the prohibition on child labour will not apply if they are helping the family in fields, forests and home-based...
More »How Sivakasi redeemed itself -TE Narasimhan
-The Business Standard The cracker industry in Sivakasi is estimated to be worth about Rs 3,500 cr B Bagyalakshmi, S Mahalakshmi and K Sankaralingam have two things in common. All used to work in firecracker and matchbox making units at Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu. However, they rebuilt their lives after studying at the National Child Labour Project (NCLP)'s special training centres, run with the financial assistance from Central and state governments. While...
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