HUMAN RIGHTS

Drawing upon learnings from her research project involving domestic workers in Delhi, the writer says this is a great time to take the first important step towards formalising their employment.

This pandemic has taught us the value of a work force that cities have largely taken for granted. As the lockdown is lifted in a few zones, it is time to introspect and ensure just and humane employment for domestic workers.

Interstate migrant workers form the backbone of the local economy, yet they have long been a faceless, voiceless community suffering due to hopelessly inadequate social security and class discrimination. The human crisis created by the coronavirus outbreak and resulting lockdown is just the manifestation of these deep-rooted issues.

Caught between the devil and the deep sea, migrant workers in the Kausambi area of NCR, which falls in UP, face a stark choice: stay put and starve or get home somehow, which for most is 700 km away.

Families evicted from Tallah basti in north Kolkata to make way for bridge repairs find themselves in temporary transit sheds, far removed from the lives they were leading. Their main demand is proper rehabilitation  – a permanent place to live from where they won’t be thrown out.

Shunned by families, often deeply scarred and traumatised by experiences in prison and ostracised by society at large, women convicts can rarely expect a normal life in the city after release. These cases from Kolkata, facilitated by state and NGOs, however raise hope.

Over the past one year, public assemblies and movement in cities have been restricted on multiple occasions by invoking Section 144 of the CrPC. Now that the same is being used to stall protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, a look at what the law actually says.

With the Citizenship Amendment Act passed and the looming possibility of a nationwide NRC, the country is on the boil. Is the CAA really discriminatory? What does it say about Indian Muslims? Is it linked with the NRC, and is it right to conflate the two? Know the facts and decide for yourself.

Between 2011 and 2017, child workers under the age of 14 increased from a little over 2000 to 32,330 — 41% of them Dalit and 55% Muslim. Now with the recent fire at Anaj Mandi claiming several such young lives, will the Delhi government sit up and act on this mounting problem?

Hospitable, caring and offering opportunities for a decent living — that is how most of them see the city. Thus, despite the tension and reports of attacks on non-Kashmiris in the days following the abrogation of Article 370, they decided to stay put. And they have not regretted it.

On Trans Remembrance Day, Pune’s transwomen gathered to remember those who lost their lives to transphobia, and shared tales of the stigma, bullying, harassment and fear that they face everyday.

The local bar is where they are often to be found, relieving the stress of their inhuman toil — India’s sewer workers, who do the unclean work that a ‘swachh’ India relies on. This World Toilet Day, we bring you some of their stories from Hyderabad.