|
Dear Reader,
In India today, there is a growing perception that fundamental and universal public entitlements are being "dismantled" to usher in "notional access", especially in healthcare to citizens.
India has shied away from legislating the Right to Health into law as the fear looms that the state does not have the capability – both in terms of capacity and fiscal – to bear the burden. However, The India Forum argues that if healthcare were to be a guaranteed right for the deprived, a “spirit of prioritising people's health” along with resources to support it, is an imperative. Healthcare for citizens has to be treated as a public good and not as a “marketable commodity".
For the tribals of Wayanad, Kerala is no 'god's own country'. Unable to find work in their own state, which has one of the highest daily wages in the country, the tribals are forced to fend for themselves in neighbouring Karnataka's coffee plantation districts - Kodagu, Mysuru, Kushalnagara and Hassan.
Article 14 reports that underpaid, overworked, and often unaccounted for, there have been regular "disappearances" of these migrant workers from their places of work. What accentuates the dire situation is that Kerala has maintained no credible account of these migrations nor put in measures to compensate the affected families at times of distress. Even the writ of the unauthorised agents, who continue to entice these workers without rules and procedures in place, has not been regulated.
In India, the road to justice is often excruciating and long. Every part of the system is usually complicit in making this journey hard and hazardous, not the least the investigating arms of the state. The Supreme Court Observer analyses two cases in just the last two weeks -- the Delhi riots case of 2020 and the Delhi Excise Policy case of 2022 -- to show how the agencies use the plea of “incomplete investigation” to prolong the cases and block bail.
And, Simdega district of Jharkhand is one of India's 'most backward districts'. However, it is richly gifted by nature and is almost one-third covered by forests, with the predominantly tribal population in residence, dependent on the forests and its produce. However, in the recent past, alarm bells have been ringing at the rapid and striking depletion of the forests through illegal felling and selling of trees.
Unable to stand mute witnesses to their lifelines vanishing before their very eyes, without any meaningful intervention by the state, the women of Simdega have taken it upon themselves to set matters right. They have formed a 'forest protection force' of volunteers from within the community to guard against the attempts of the 'wood mafia' to pillage their forests. MojoStory reports.
For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.
Warmly,
Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF
|
