GENRE: In Focus

Delhi has no COVID war room. But the capital had become the centre of attention in the fight against COVID-19 when on June 9th, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia estimated that Delhi, groaning under an acute shortage of hospital beds, would need over 5.5 lakh beds by end July. A shocked public, the city administration, hospitals and even Union Home Minister Amit Shah stepped in. The BJP at the Centre and AAP in Delhi called a truce as they joined hands to deal with what was becoming a crisis in the capital. Their crisis management efforts finally yielded some positive results. At 10.25…

Kulsum Khatun and husband, a rickshaw puller, are residents of Jagdamba camp in Sheikh Sarai. Over the last few months of lockdown in the capital, none of them were able to find any work. “My two daughters, aged 7 and 9, study in a government school in Malviya Nagar (South Delhi),” said Kusum, “Mid-day meals were very important for us since we hardly make enough to feed them twice a day. Now, even that has stopped. We received around Rs 95 in March but nothing since then.” On March 23rd, seven days after the COVID crisis forced closure of all…

On March 18th, Chennai reported its first COVID case, that of a 20-year-old man who reached the city from New Delhi in a train. Fast forward by a little over four months, and the city has seen a total of 1,07,109 cases, with 11,720 active cases at present (figures as on August 7th). Due to two major clusters -- the returnees of Tablighi Jamaat congregation and Koyambedu market -- the city recorded thousands of cases in April and May. The good news, however, is that from reporting 3,000 odd cases every day, the city now records about 1,200 odd cases…

In Part 1 of this series, we found that despite government's claims, Bengaluru has only about 3,500 hospital beds dedicated for COVID treatment. In this part, we explore why private hospitals have not complied with the government orders to give up beds and treat COVID patients. In a recent webinar on COVID, Viswa Mohan Tripahi, a resident of Mantri Alpyne apartment, narrated their ordeal trying to find a hospital bed for another resident who had developed symptoms. "The person's oxygen levels were dropping fast. They dropped to the 80s and we couldn't find a hospital for treatment. Everyone was asking…

Vaishnavi Bhardwaj’s ‘school’ is her dadi’s pooja room. And her classroom is her Dadi’s smartphone. Every Monday-Friday, 9-year-old Vaishnavi is ready to ‘go to school’ by 9 am. Her mother Rashi makes sure that the fourth standard student at a private school in East Delhi has all the required text books and note books ready in time for her morning class prayer, signalling the beginning of her day in school.  Schools in the capital began for the new academic session on July 1st with technology driven classes over the Internet and on television. Private school students like Vaishnavi, every morning wear…

Since COVID cases started surging in Bengaluru, we've heard of several reports of patients not finding hospital beds or being denied treatment. Most recently, even a COVID doctor at Chikkamudavadi PHC (Primary Health Centre) in Ramanagara district, Dr Manjunath S T, succumbed to the virus after being turned away by three Bengaluru hospitals. Despite this, the government has maintained that there are enough COVID beds in the city. Towards the end of June, government had ordered that half the beds in all private hospitals would be reserved for COVID patients. On July 7, Dr K Sudhakar, Minister of Medical Education,…

It has been over four months now that schools in the country are shut, due to the lockdown following the COVID-19 pandemic. While there has been a big shift towards online schooling over this period, mostly through synchronous classes on platforms like Zoom or Google Meet, parents of schoolchildren have raised a red flag about the massive increase in screen time for their children when schools replaced classroom learning with online classes. The HRD ministry stepped in to assuage their fears and  announced guidelines called Pragyata, which laid down a cap on the duration and the number of sessions in…

‘Social distancing’, a phrase that was alien to a majority of us has now become one of the key weapons in our battle against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Along with masking, limiting contact with others by ensuring a metre's distance between individuals is one of the recommendations that has been widely acknowledged as a measure that could help contain the spread. Cities across the world went into extended lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus. Halting of public transport, closure of shops, movie halls, malls, bars, restaurants and other establishments took place in most cities.  But while crucial to…

When temperatures soar, Delhiites pray for rain. But when it pours, even just for a few hours, tragedy strikes. As happened on July 19th. Severe waterlogging submerged many parts of the city creating huge traffic jams. One house collapsed when a drain near it collapsed, and four people died from the flooding in different parts of the city. Among the major casualties on the same day was the central dome of Delhi's iconic Mubarak Begum mosque -- built in 1823 and a prominent visitor attraction -- which collapsed in the torrential rain. Such monsoon mayhem has become an annual feature…

Translated by Sandhya Raju கண்ணகி நகரில் வாகன போக்குவரத்தற்ற குறுகிய தெருவில், ஐந்து வயது குமார் (பெயர் மாற்றப்பட்டுள்ளது) அவனை விட வயதில் பெரிய சிறுவர்களின் குழுவுடன் கிரிக்கெட் விளையாடுகிறான். மதிய உணவுக்காக அனைவரும் கலைந்து செல்ல, குமார் மட்டும் தனியாக அங்கயே இருக்கிறான். தெரு ஓரத்தில் உள்ள பெஞ்சில் அமர்ந்து, அடுத்து விளையாட யாரேனும் வருவார்களா என எதிர்பார்த்து காத்திருக்கிறான். சாப்பிட போகவில்லையா என கேட்டால் "பசி இல்லை" என்கிறான். ஆனால், உண்மை அதுவல்ல - வீட்டில் நல்ல உணவு இல்லை என்பதே உண்மையான காரணம். சென்னையில் பொதுமுடக்கம் தொடங்கியது முதல் குமார் மதிய உணவு இல்லாமல் இருக்கிறான். பொதுமுடக்கத்திற்கு முன், 23ம் தெருவில் உள்ள அங்கன்வாடி மையத்தில் தான் அவன் மதிய உணவு உண்டான். அவனுக்க பிடித்த சாம்பார் சாதம் முட்டையுடன் அல்லது காயுடன் அங்கே பரிமாறப்பட்டது. கடந்த மூன்று மாதங்களாக ஆசிரியர் இல்லாமல் மூடியே உள்ளது.…