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Dear Reader,
This year, India has chalked up a worrying and dubious record -- in the number of journalists incarcerated. This roll call of seven includes six charged under the dreaded UAPA -- Aasif Sultan, Gautam Navlakha, Manan Dar, Sajad Gul, Fahad Shah, Rupesh Kumar Singh and Siddique Kappan. The last named has just been granted bail by the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court.
The Citizen’s report of journalists imprisoned for their work by the State is based on a global study by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), an independent, nonprofit organisation that promotes press freedom globally.
Indian students, meanwhile, are prisoners of their own and their parent’s ambitions. A less than par education system, calibrated for rote learning, the unbridled parental aspirations for a ‘dream job,’ amidst a shrinking job market has fuelled a thriving tuition market slated to touch a whopping Rs 1,33,995 crore by 2028.
At the last count, five years ago, for which data is available, more than seven crore students were enrolled for ‘tuitions’ in India. The pandemic lockdown only hastened the trend. ThePrint looks at the phenomenon and notes that experts are in the process of assessing the mental and social impact of this loss of childhood, what seemingly is now an entrenched “lifestyle”.
A three-decade-old stalemate bedevilling climate talks finally broke, with the establishment of a ‘Loss and Damage Fund’ at the 27th meeting of COP (COP-27) in Egypt’s Sharm El Sheikh. This breakthrough will enable developed countries to compensate people in less well-off nations to recover from calamitous climate change impacts. As The India Forum notes, the breakthrough did not come easy. It needed an organised and concerted effort by climate activists and developing countries, against strong opposition, to force the issue.
And, how does climate change, the deleterious effects of which the COP-27 tried hard to cope with, impact the most vulnerable in society? Mojo Story reports from Jharkhand to find that it is invariably the most marginalised – the tribals, especially women, who are the hardest hit. Adding to their plight is the incapacity of governments in creating awareness and instituting remedial measures, pushing the affected to the brink.
For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.
Warmly,
Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF
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