In this series of interviews, Covid Response Watch brings you the voices of doctors, health workers, social activists and others, working at the grassroots, speaking about the multiple impacts of the Covid pandemic on the lives of ordinary Indian citizens. Some aspects of the Covid disaster are new and unprecedented but many of them are also a continuation of the[Read More…]
The lockdown-induced loss of livelihoods has left many vulnerable villagers in Madhya Pradesh unable to feed their families even two square meals a day. Bhopal: Four-year-old Gudiya* (name changed) smiles shyly as she eats salted rice from a plate that she shares with her two sisters. The three girls from Birhulia village in Umaria, Madhya Pradesh haven’t eaten dal[Read More…]
Sangli (Maharashtra): In more normal times it would have been the joyous strains of the sitar, sarod and tanpura filling the air in the historic town of Miraj in Sangli district of western Maharashtra, close to the Karnataka border. After a year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the town is now shrouded only in a melancholy silence. Repeated lockdowns have[Read More…]
Amidst India’s unfolding Covid disaster, the southern Indian state of Kerala has been lauded for its effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in controlling mortality. What are the factors that help explain Kerala’s record? This two-part analysis attempts to unravel the secrets of Kerala’s impressive performance against Covid, based on extensive interviews with key officials involved. This is the[Read More…]
Amidst India’s unfolding Covid disaster, the southern Indian state of Kerala has been lauded for its effective response to the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in controllsing mortality. As of June 2, Kerala, despite having the third highest cumulative case count in the country (9,60,000), had the second lowest death rate (.36%) with 3,508 fatalities. In contrast, the state of Delhi, home[Read More…]
Written by B.Sivaraman & Kumudini Pati Online classes have become the main mode of learning for millions of school students across India due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with its repeated lockdowns and social distancing measures. The shift however is proving to be extremely painful for families in small towns and rural areas for many reasons, especially high costs of purchasing[Read More…]
Pune (Maharashtra): For decades, the second week of March has marked the start of the popular traditional wrestling season, that attract hundreds of participants and big audiences in the villages of western Maharashtra. Held as part of travelling fairs, that also include folk theater and music performances such as tamasha and lavani, farming communities look forward eagerly to watching the[Read More…]
K.P Sasi is a film-maker, Cartoonist, writer and activist GET COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX
Chennai: As I complete my long discussion with Muthukumar, he politely asks me if he can ask me a question. “Please do” I say and he asks “Sir, I had mortgaged my wife’s jewels with a private lender only recently, now I have no job .Will they give me any waiver for I cannot pay the dues?”. His question comes[Read More…]
Pune, Maharashtra:“People are not ready to go to the local government hospital to get treated for Corona. They think that from there the doctor will send them to the district hospital in Amravati, where there will be no treatment. They will only get sick and die. Even their dead body will be secretively disposed by the officers and family members[Read More…]
“Cow dung, cow urine didn’t work. Groundless argument. Tomorrow I will eat fish”. In mid-May this year, this simple Facebook post about the futility of bovine waste as a cure for Covid-19, was enough to get Kishorechandra Wangkhem, a journalist from Imphal, Manipur arrested for ‘sedition’ . The post upset members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as it came[Read More…]
When the New York Times recently claimed that the official Covid-19 figures in India grossly understate the true scale of the pandemic in the country the Indian government went ballistic. Based on an analysis, in consultation with over a dozen experts, the NYT put the death toll due to Covid-19 in India at over 5 times the official numbers – making it[Read More…]
K. P Sasi is a film-maker, cartoonist, writer and an activist GET COUNTERCURRENTS DAILY NEWSLETTER STRAIGHT TO YOUR INBOX
Allahabad: “Theek hai yaar. Koi baat nahin![i] Don’t worry. I will make some alternative arrangement”. Nihal Mishra was putting on a brave, courteous face while getting blunt refusals from three of his friends in Delhi, whom he had requested for a place to stay. He was going to Delhi to get his wife admitted at the All India Institute of[Read More…]
The architect of our constitution felt that it is workable, flexible and strong enough to hold the country together both in peace and war time. If in recent times we have Covid-warriors and Covid war-rooms that mean we are indeed at war. The Preamble indicates the basic structure of the Indian constitution which cannot be changed in any case or[Read More…]
Allahabad: The recent images of bloating human bodies floating on the Ganga, with crows and dogs picking on the carcasses have shocked the nation and made headlines around the world. Reports of burial of hundreds of dead bodies in riverside sand outside towns in Uttar Pradesh like Unnao and Kanpur have also surfaced. It is clear that most of these[Read More…]
Dumka, Jharkhand: ‘I am completely alone’, says Asha worker Jayshree Marandi sadly. ‘He would have helped me in the care and education of the children, but Covid-19 snatched him from me.’ Jayshree Marandi is talking about her husband, whom the pandemic swallowed. Jayshree remembers how he used to take her from village-to-village while he carried out his work. “ I[Read More…]
In times of doubt and despair, remind yourself of a line from Pablo Neruda: “You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot keep Spring from coming”. The government has done everything to cut all communications. The roads have been blocked; trenches have been dug to prevent tractors from entering the city; beds of sharp nails have been laid out[Read More…]
The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 3.34 million and over 160.8 million cases of the infection have been detected, according to Baltimore, Maryland’s Johns Hopkins University (JHU). The U.S., India and Brazil are the top three countries in terms of the number of registered coronavirus infections, while the largest number of COVID-19-related deaths has been observed[Read More…]
No one is malicious and mean enough to believe that Modi has knowingly caused the death of lacs and disease to millions. He has done his best to prevent them but failed. He failed because his priorities were wrong and he lacked far-sightedness. He took no step in time to prevent the infected to enter the country and spread the[Read More…]
Modi on April 19 announced “liberalised vaccine pricing” policy. “Private vaccination providers shall transparently declare their self-set vaccination price.” This is part-2 of a two-part article, dealing with Politics And Economics of the Vaccine policy. Covid-19 Vaccines: Politics And Economics Of The IPR Waiver Ploy –Part 1 was published on May 11: https://countercurrents.org/2021/05/covid-19-vaccines-politics-and-economics-of-the-ipr-waiver-ploy/ *** *** The Essence of Vaccine Policy[Read More…]
The Madras HC reminded the Election Commission that it was the “the most irresponsible institution” and even said its officials may be booked under murder charges…Causing death by negligence or recklessness by refusing to see the killer virus is murder strictly as per the definition in IPC. Please read Sections 299 and 300 of Indian Penal Code which is working[Read More…]
US announcement to discuss IPR relaxation came as Modi regime, a QUAD ally, was gasping for political breath after election setbacks, and an oxygen crisis in India. In a sudden change of heart, US announced, towards the end of April 2021, that it may relent on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) restrictions and may lift the ban on export of raw materials[Read More…]
Both the Supreme Court and several High courts have upheld the view, time and again, that getting a quality public health service facility is a basic human right of every citizen. Despite of it, during this pandemic, the number of deaths is hiking in major cities of the country due to the non-availability of Oxygen; owing to this, the crematoriums[Read More…]
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“Cow dung, cow urine didn’t work. Groundless argument. Tomorrow I will eat fish”. In mid-May this year, this simple Facebook post about the futility of bovine waste as a cure for Covid-19, was enough to get Kishorechandra Wangkhem, a journalist from Imphal, Manipur arrested for ‘sedition’ . The post upset members of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party as it came[Read More…]
Caste, Class and India’s Covid Catastrophe
Covid-19 patients dying on the streets gasping for oxygen. Hundreds of wailing, desperate folks searching for hospital beds to access treatment. Even the dead denied dignified funerals, their bodies dumped unceremoniously in the rivers of India. Much has been written about the reasons for the Indian government’s abysmal failure to prepare for the devastating surge in Covid-19 cases in India[Read More…]