2021

by Kingshuk Sarkar* & Ayushi Agrawal**
Suhana (name changed) is in her early thirties. She is a widow and, has three children. She is living in a semi kaccha house in the sub-urban area of Delhi. She works as a domestic worker in nearby societies and earning a reasonable livelihood. Living and managing everything all alone was not easy for her but thanks to her work which gives sufficient income to manage everything. But this current pandemic and subsequent lockdown has changed (…)

by L K Sharma
Darkness descends on what was being shown as “shining India”. A nation seems to have turned upon itself. Criminalisation of politics hollows out democracy. Social relationships are disrupted by polarisation driven by the communal virus. An elected leader has set out to transform society and polity, crush the idea of India, demolish venerable institutions and leave behind some state-imagined architectural objects as his legacy. The Leader has empowered groups that keep (…)

by Abhay Jain and Sandeep Pandey
As Covid consumes human life in a very conspicuous way we are confronted with additional problem of disposing off human corpses. Cremation grounds are lit with continuous pyres, graveyards are running out of land and now Ganga has become a mass grave potentially polluting its water.
In India, one estimate reveals that funeral pyres consume 6 crores trees annually and plays a huge role in deforestation in country. Air pollution and deforestation are not (…)

Our leaders have a special talent to turn peaceful landscapes into war zones. Remember how, one fine morning, Jammu & Kashmir was divided into two union territories. As if on signal, Mukesh Ambani formed a task force and said "you’ll see several steps for J & K, Ladakh soon."
We are about to see several steps for Lakshadweep soon. As per tradition, Lakshadweep’s administrator was a bureaucrat from the IAS/IPS ranks. When Dineshwar Sharma, who was chief of the Intelligence (…)

by Chittarvu Raghu *
The central government had issued a notification dated 15.11.2019 under Sec.1(3) of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, 2016 appointing the 1st Day of December, 2019 as the date on which some of the provisions relating to personal guarantors to corporate debtors shall come into force. Consequently, Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (Insolvency Resolution Process for Personal Guarantors to Corporate Debtors) Regulations, 2019, dated 20.11.2019 were framed by (…)

Covid-19 crisis has shattered our accepted notions of life and politics. Very recently, Ranabir Samaddar has explored different dimensions of the crisis in his search of the politics of life (Ranabir Samaddar, A Pandemic and the Politics of Life, Women Unlimited, New Delhi, 2021). He noted in this context: “Covid-19 crisis is a combination of three crises: a public health crisis, the migrant crisis, and an economic-financial crisis”.
Samaddar has offered a powerful critique of (…)

by Sparsh Sharma*
In March 2021, a person as high as holding an office of a CM of an Indian state said that wearing ripped jeans by a woman was “outrageous and shocking” [1]. The remark instigated sections of junta with #rippedjeanstwitter [2] trending on social media in response to it. Supporters say, what’s wrong to teach the culture and Indianness (ripped jeans as a threat to cultural hegemony)?
This view has many flaws in itself. Indianness comes from values. Values come from one’s (…)

by Arun Srivastava
While the Supreme Court has been consistently seeking a candid clarification from the Modi government as to why it failed to meet the challenges of covid effectively, the government has been busy beating the bush around and not coming up with the plausible reply.
The Supreme Court in its hearing during the last three-four days has been trying to seek a positive reply from the Modi government as to why the Covid vaccine policy has been ’arbitrary and irrational’. While (…)

by Prof Gull Mohammad wani
Jitni bhi bilduinge,n the,n Setho’n ne baat li hain Footpath Bambai Ka hai’n ashihyana hamara ( All buildings have been taken by the Rich The footpaths of Bombay remains our home) Sahir Ludwanini
There are many theories in circulation about the origin of Covid-19 pandemic .From experts, scientists and conspiracy theorists public domain has been flooded by these accounts. there is however, near unanimity that the pandemic is going to generate more (…)

by Ananya Pathak *
It is estimated that 1.8 billion women across the world menstruate every month, but ironically millions of women continue to be denied access to facilities to ensure a dignified period. As the world grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic, gender inequality, social taboos, stigma and discrimination accompanied by poverty continue to deny women access to basic menstrual products and health services. NFHS Data from 2015-16 suggests that out of an estimated 336 million women in (…)