Europe Solidaire Sans Frontières
As crops fail in the rising heat, men are leaving many rural areas for migrant work in cities. Women are left to tend to the farming in increasingly dangerous conditions.
Sitting in a semi-circle in the yard outside of a village school in Nepal, a group of farmers share their concerns about (...)
The COVID-19 Pandemic, Recovery and Impact on Workers
The impact of the pandemic and post-pandemic recovery plans on workers across Asia and the world demands attention. The fallouts of the pandemic in terms of economic disruption, surging unemployment, large-scale migration and displacement (...)
In Sri Lanka, there are many factors shaping mainstream media coverage of citizen-led protests.
On 4 May 2022, a tweet posted by the Colombo-based reporter Chandani Kirinde sparked debate on the role of journalists in political movements. The tweet was in response to news that 12 people, (...)
Indians know they can’t rely on elites to save them from catastrophe. That’s exactly what could make a climate movement there so powerful.
Large parts of my ancestral homeland of India and neighboring Pakistan are facing a severe heatwave, with temperatures soaring to 111 degrees Fahrenheit—far (...)
An extreme heatwave in India and Pakistan has left more than a billion people in one of the most densely populated parts of the world facing temperatures well above 40℃. Although this has not broken all-time records for the regions, the hottest part of the year is yet to come.
Though the (...)
Commemorating Human Rights Day, the founding of SAARC and 50 years of Bangladesh’s independence, discussion organised by SAPAN highlights the commonality of human rights issues across the region.
Activists from across South Asia have expressed concern at the deteriorating human rights (...)
Moving beyond Convention 189 and towards municipalization
After the euphoric moment of ILO deliberations that culminated in Convention No. 189 of 2011 concerning “decent work” for domestic workers, the feminization of paid domestic work, the concentration of the most vulnerable sections of (...)
With protests becoming catalysts for anti-authoritarian struggle, the air is ripe for new visions of rural emancipation
Those familiar with the systematic attack on agriculture in South Asia over the last decades will not be surprised at the ongoing farmers’ protests in India. It could have (...)
When the climate crisis is referred to as anthropogenic, I tend to think of two related but separate phenomena. On the one hand, there is the increase in greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution which has contributed to a rise in global mean temperatures, leading to more extreme (...)
As India is trying to manage the fallout from the first major border skirmish, since 1975, with China in which substantial number of troops were killed it would do well to assess its broader political and economic impact on the regional situation. Both China and India, with their growing (...)
South Asia is home to over 50 million home-based workers, most of whom are women. From agarbhatti incense stick rollers in India to piecework garment workers in Sri Lanka, they contribute immensely to national economies in addition to their families and local communities as working from home (...)
Flooding in Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar and Nepal has killed scores of people, destroyed homes and structures, drowned entire villages, and forced many to crouch on rooftops hoping for rescue.
When heavy floods started inundating her riverside home last week in the village of (...)
The construction of a motorable road by the Indian government, towards the Chinese border and near the disputed Kalapani area on the Indo-Nepal border sparked off a diplomatic row. Although there were minor complications in the past around such isssues, the situation has worsened rapidly since (...)
In the last week, simmering tensions on the Indian-Chinese border in the Himalayas have escalated to open conflict, with fatalities on both sides. India’s foreign policy, and not just China, deserves much blame for the escalation.
Tensions have been simmering on the border between India and (...)
The coronavirus has unveiled the spectre of a larger crisis. A majority of the planetary economies were already in the throes of over-production, stagnation and even, a recession, which deepened with the day, since the sub-prime crisis of 2008-09. The pandemic has exacerbated the situation. The (...)
On Wednesday, Cyclone Amphan hit the eastern coast of India and Bangladesh, killing at least 84 people. Now-weakened, the first super cyclone to have formed in the Bay of Bengal since 1999 is making its way north through Bangladesh and towards Bhutan. As the death toll continues to climb, (...)
The laws that were created by the British Raj are still being used to stifle dissent on the Indian subcontinent.
It appears to be sedition season on the Indian subcontinent. A relic of the colonial era, the sedition law has become a potent weapon in the hands of the Pakistani and Indian (...)
The world today is witnessing a fascinating rebirth of popular republicanism. The central feature of this phenomenon is the mass public participation of citizens in defence of rights guaranteed in the constitution.
From India to Lebanon and from the US to Chile, movements have invoked their (...)
Colonial-era sedition laws used to criminalize dissent to protect imperial sovereignty. Now that “The People are sovereign” in independent India and Pakistan, why are they still being charged with sedition?
The recently concluded Students Solidarity March in Pakistan created excitement across (...)
Location: 2172 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515 Subcommittee: Asia, the Pacific, and Nonproliferation
Witnesses
Panel I
The Honorable Alice G. Wells Acting Assistant Secretary Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, U.S. Department of State Witness Statement [PDF] (...)
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