GENRE: In Focus

After three days of hell on earth, Day 4 of the Narendra Modi decreed 21-day lockdown brought some relief to the thousands of migrant labourers in Kaushambi, a part of the NCR, but in Ghaziabad district of UP. These migrant labourers from distant parts of UP in Kaushambi had been left in the lurch. Those who could had started to walk back to their homes, 700 km away. Till finally on March 28th, after a major debate on why a government that can bring home Indians stranded abroad cannot send its migrant workers home, the government relented and started limited…

On the isolated Rukmani Devi Street of Valasaravakkam, Chinnaiyan, a conservancy worker parks his tricycle under a large almond tree. The shade of the tree has always been his resting place, where he would catch a break after collecting household waste from six streets. As he opens his lunch box, a routine he has been following for a few years now, two residents turn up and ask him not to sit there. “They did not want me to park the tricycle here as they were afraid I would infect them. I will have to eat at the corner of the…

The whole country is in lockdown in the hope of containing coronavirus. But as WHO has warned, lockdowns alone aren’t enough to tackle the pandemic. A critical step in containing coronavirus is contact tracing -- identifying anyone who came in contact with an infected person, quarantining and monitoring them. But in many of our cities, particularly in north India, contact tracing has been poor or even non-existent. Besides, there’s been large scale and blatant violations of the Central guidelines on mandatory quarantine of those who have returned from abroad. The worst offender is perhaps Bhopal, which doesn’t seem to have…

It has come to our notice that this article has been forwarded on several chat and social media platforms with a MISLEADING introduction that the Disaster Management Act prohibits any citizen, apart from the government, to post any update or share any forward related to Coronavirus, making it a punishable offence. This is NOT what the article below says; it merely explains the provisions of the said law, and points out that **FAKE** claims and warnings may attract penalties under Sections 52 and 54 of the Act. Fake news peddlers may now face imprisonment of up to one year or…

The ever-bustling Velachery Main Road in Chennai is deserted now, thanks to the impending imposition of Section 144 by the Tamil Nadu government. The coronavirus scare has led people to stay indoors and maintain social distance fearing contact transmission. In many parts of the city, shops are open only for a few hours and there is panic buying to stock up on essentials. There is an informal instruction issued by the cops to shut down supermarkets to limit crowding. In this scenario, have the small businesses in Chennai seen an increase in business yet? Sadly not. With lockdown in force,…

There has been a strange silence, both before and after the Janata curfew. Even as the rest of the world announces massive economic relief packages to tackle the Corona spread and help those whose livelihoods have been badly hit by the virus, the Narendra Modi government has said and done little on this so far. Trade unions and other groups have sent numerous recommendations to the Centre on steps that can be taken in the short term But even the economic task force, which the PM had announced during his address to the nation, has so far not yet been…

Kerala has received kudos for its proactive measures in this time of COVID19 crisis. First in tracking corona patients and their contacts and creating adequate testing, treatment and isolation of potential victims and the other steps like setting up screening in railway stations to contain the spread of the virus. And the second, for being first state to announce a Rs 20,000 crore economic package providing relief to the poor and other vulnerable sections of society who have been hard hit by the virus spread. Critics have described the measures as a sop to woo voters for the local body…

The number of Coronavirus cases in Punjab shot up to 14 on March 21st. More than half of these individuals were infected after coming in contact with a single international traveler, 70-year-old Baldev Singh, who refused to remain in self-isolation upon his return to the state. Singh died from heart failure on March 18th and was found to be Coronavirus positive only after his death. Baldev was a priest in a Gurudwara at Pathlawa village in Nawanshahr (renamed Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar) district and had gone to Germany and Italy in February. He returned to Delhi on March 6th. Along…

These are difficult times, and the world around us seems headed towards a dystopia of sorts. As discussed in our earlier interview with Dr Kalyanasundaram, Bengaluru-based Consultant Psychiatrist and an Honorary Adviser to the Bengaluru Branch of Richmond Fellowship Society, the risk of mental health issues has increased sharply. Indeed, we are already beginning to see signs among people caught in the situations created by the outbreak of coronavirus – corporate professionals struggling to get all work done from home, parents trying to keep their kids occupied and entertained all day, caregivers trying to explain the situation to the most…