Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
The title of this article is a humble nod to a significant work of literature of the last century, Marquez’s magic realism, ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’. The current Covid crisis is no less of magic realism: a tiny virus has virtually brought capitalism to its knees. The damage that two World (...)
Introduction
A spectre is, right now, haunting the world.
The spectre of a pandemic - COVID-19.
COVID-191,2,3 is a viral disease - both infectious and potentially fatal, belonging to the SARS family, caused by a zoonotic - i.e. transmitted from animals to humans, virus.
It, mainly, affects (...)
India has been under a lockdown to stem the spread of the coronavirus for two months. On March 25, the first day of the lockdown, India had 618 confirmed cases and 13 deaths.
As India is easing the lockdown now, it has more than 151,000 cases and more than 4,300 deaths — a much smaller number (...)
The left-ruled Indian State of Kerala continues to remain in the global spotlight for its effective and efficient measures in tackling the COVID-19 pandemic. Kerala dominated the Indian news headlines, showing the rest of the world its potential, its strength and its humane approach, (...)
From New Delhi, Shigraf Zahbi reports on how “the virus” became “the Muslim virus” in less than a week.
On Thursday, March 19, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delivered his first national address amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, in which, elegantly eschewing any talk of the government’s (...)
The Left Democratic Front (LDF)-governed Indian state of Kerala’s reaction to the coronavirus virus outbreak is now hailed as an international example for COVID-19 control.
Kerala’s COVID-19 response included public education and support for people’s livelihoods. Photo: CPI(M)
As of May 18, this (...)
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an unprecedented health crisis world-over, where we are still grappling with the unknown characteristics of the virus. This is also an economic crisis of such scale that many wonder whether the world economy will ever revive back to its pre pandemic days. (...)
Communist-run Kerala has been successfully tackling Covid-19 thanks to a strong health service and clear communication
In early March the alarm bells hadn’t started ringing yet in India: a country with only six confirmed Covid-19 cases, three of them in Kerala. But within a few weeks the (...)
The current Modi Government has shown both criminal neglect and criminal intent in how it has dealt with this pandemic. Let the facts speak for themselves as we simply lay down the time sequence of what the Government did do as well as what it did not or refused to do. The Medical Response (...)
Indian Economist Jean Dreze, in an interview with Outlook, says that because of the Coronavirus lockdown, there won’t be any employment under MNREGA now and Bihar will be the worst-hit.
Belgian-born Indian economist, Jean Dreze, says that the central government needs to take immediate measures (...)
The ‘biggest human migration on foot after Partition’ is underway, after India imposed Covid-19 restrictions more drastic than any other country.
Horrific, heartbreaking images have emerged of lakhs of migrant workers trudging towards to their villages, sometimes braving a journey of hundreds of (...)
An incisive report highlights how a substantial workforce of 139 million internal migrant workers, invisible to the system, has been the hardest hit post-lockdown. Further, it lists the urgent measures needed to ensure a safe and dignified existence for migrant communities.
In the first few (...)
Finally, it has arrived. When it arrived after a long period of speculations, it was welcomed by all onlookers with loud applause. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) or the Prime Minister’s Welfare Scheme for Poors on March 26th 2020, (...)
India needs a better system of social protection for day labourers as well as the women home makers and carers who stay in the villages. The Covid-19 pandemic proves it.
The Union finance minister’s Thursday package of measures offered nothing to directly relieve the dire predicament of migrant (...)
India is passing through the second stage of the most serious health crisis in its recent history. How we respond to it as a society is crucial to mitigating the effect of COVID 19 virus on our individual health. Democracy is ultimately a system of social relationships, of everyone with (...)
The global pandemic of COVID-19 has reached a stage of a massive and unprecedented crisis in India. Evidence from previous historical research of epidemics suggests physical distancing, timely state action and communicating the truth are critical strategies to effectively tackle a pandemic. (...)
If the poor must stay at home, they need income support and essential services.
As the novel coronavirus spreads, a double crisis looms over India: a health crisis and an economic crisis. In terms of casualties, the health crisis is still very confined (seven deaths in a country where eight (...)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to the nation today was a combination of sound if incomplete public health advice and dramatic appeals to civic consciousness, even as it lacked what many had hoped he would provide – an authoritative account of how the government intends to deal with the (...)
As many of us are painfully aware, social distancing is an impossibility for much of India (and a lot of other regions). Measures such as hand-washing, keeping oneself at home if symptomatic, working from home can be followed without any major life repercussions only by a tiny minority of the (...)
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