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Dear Reader,
Four young people, aged between 18 and 21, were arrested last week for creating the ‘Bulli Bai’ app that “auctioned” Muslim women – journalists, activists, authors, lawyers, academicians, and media personalities. Article 14 points out that the trolled women, apart from being Muslim had something else in common – they were independent, with a mind and influence of their own and had a presence on social media, which they were unafraid to assert.
The News Minute argues that this brazen misogyny and bigotry was a direct result of the State’s utter passiveness and silence in the three earlier occasions when similar episodes were perpetrated, including the 'Sulli Deals' in July last year, of which 'Bulli Bai' is a clone. The law enforcement agencies’ utter apathy and inaction, deliberate or otherwise, is adding to the already toxic and surcharged communal atmosphere.
As the system girds to face the onslaught of the third wave, familiar issues and events reminiscent of the first two waves are back. Mojo Story reports on how non-Covid patients are once again being turned away from hospitals, as the healthcare system prioritises the Covid afflicted.
The Probe talks to volunteers and ambulance drivers, who at the height of the first two waves were at the frontline of the battle against the pandemic. They are now beginning to experience the dreaded distress calls for help and ambulances, as they prepare for what they fear may lie ahead.
And, Down To Earth reports that there is a new challenge in sight, with children below the age of 10, previously thought to be relatively immune to Covid, are now showing signs of increasing vulnerability. The share of children in the total active cases has more than doubled from 2.8 per cent in March last year to 7.04 in August. This calls for urgent action from the government to universalise the vaccine on a war footing.
For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.
Warmly,
Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF
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