Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, April 30, 2022

  29 April 2022

  Letter to the Readers, Mainstream, April 30, 2022
  In the past week, an extreme heatwave has engulfed large parts of the India and Pakistan region with temperatures in the range of 46 degrees C and above. Heatwaves are of course common for us every year in the region, but this year we have seen high temperatures starting in the month of March itself – the highest recorded average in a hundred years. Such extreme conditions are no doubt driven by global climate change, but a conscious and (…)

• A Mess Called India’s Health Sector | Govind Bhattacharjee

  29 April 2022

  by Dr. Govind Bhattacharjee *
  (I)
  Nothing like the pandemic has ever exposed the decrepit state of India’s healthcare system and its extremely limited capacity. Even before the pandemic, it was not unknown— only authorities had failed to take any notice because of their inability to address the hopeless state of our public healthcare system. Underfunded and neglected for many decades, it couldn’t have been corrected within a short span of time. Some data will help to understand the (…)

• The Age of Crime and Computers | TJS George

  29 April 2022, by T J S George

  Imagine a situation where a household celebrity of Karnataka such as B. S. Yediyurappa cannot be found. That is what happened in the ultra-modern state recently. There is a special court for the trial of cases involving MPs and MLAs. Officials attached to the court failed to serve summons on Yedi, accused in a land denotification case of 2012. Reason: The accused could not be found.
  The official visited Yedi’s house on three different days. The big man was busy touring the state, (…)

• BJP’s Propaganda Mechanism: A Serious Challenge to Indian Democracy | Nagender Madavaram

  29 April 2022

  by Dr. Nagender Madavaram *
  Recently held Assembly Elections exposed the fragility of Indian democracy as well as obsolete strategies of opposition parties. There are serious concerns about the functioning of Election Commission of India (ECI). The way it declared seven-phase election schedule in Uttar Pradesh (UP) raised apprehensions about its independence and impartiality. It seems, ECI scheduled the elections to accommodate calendar of BJP star campaigners. BJP formed alliance with (…)

• India’s Anti-Conversion Laws: a Violent attack on the Dignity of Dalits, Adivasis and Women? | Joseph Tharamangalam

  29 April 2022, by Joseph Tharamangalam

  “Whoever contravenes the provisions of section 3 in respect of a minor or a person of unsound mind or a woman or a person belonging to the Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe shall be punished with imprisonment for a term not less than 4 years” (Karnataka’s Bill, p.2, emphasis added).
  This quote from Karnataka’s anti-conversion bill, ironically named “The Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Bill” (passed on December 23, 2021, but still awaiting final approval by the (…)

• Long Delays in NREGA Wage Payments in Himachal Confirm Worst Fears Expressed at the Time of Budget Cuts | Bharat Dogra

  29 April 2022

  This is like to be part of a wider trend
  Recent reports indicate increasing problems in the implementation of MG-NREGA in Himachal Pradesh, the most disturbing aspect being the long delays in the payments of workers.
  A front page, top news report in a leading newspaper of this region Amar Ujala stated on April 28, “ in most gram panchayats of Himachal Pradesh daily wage payments of thousands of workers have been held up while development works worth crores of Rs. have also been held up. (…)

• Women Workers & Emerging Body Rules in Service Work in Urban India | Asiya Islam

  29 April 2022

  by Asiya Islam *
  Abstract
  Drawing on the narratives of young lower-middle-class women employed in cafés, call centers, shopping malls, and offices in Delhi, India, in this paper I identify malleability or “plasticity” of the body as an important feature of contemporary service work. As neophyte service professionals, young women mold themselves to the middle-/upper-class milieu of their workplaces through clothes, makeup, and body language. Such body plasticity can be experienced as (…)

• Child Labour in India: the Hard Reality | Tarun Kumar Basu

  29 April 2022

  by Tarun Kumar Basu *
  May Day and 75 years of Indian independence - What stops us to end slavery
  A boy of below 17 years was brought from a remote village of Uttar Pradesh to Delhi with the promise of a decent job at a manufacturing unit with a monthly salary of Rs 17,000. He got a job at a cooler pump-making factory in Bawana Industrial Area. There he was made to work for hours for just Rs 50-100 per day. He (…)

• Workers led agenda for the post pandemic world order | Bhabani Shankar Nayak

  29 April 2022

  by Bhabani Shankar Nayak *
  The Westphalian capitalism and all its structures, agencies and mouthpieces have promised a world without poverty, inequalities and instabilities. The neoliberal variant of the Westphalian ideology has promised a world of prosperity, stability, peace, social and economic inclusion; the trickle-down effect. Reform not revolution was the fundamental principle on which Westphalian state managed to accommodation the aspirations of people within a dysfunctional (…)

• His Majesty’s loyal Opposition: Arvind Kejriwal | Faraz Ahmad

  29 April 2022, by Faraz Ahmad

  Is Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal complicit or rather a partner in Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s declared scheme to make Congress-mukt Bharat (rid India completely of the Congress party)?
  So it appears and the collaboration between Amit Shah and Kejriwal maybe unstated but not irreproachable. Till the last round of elections, when Kejriwal fielded his party candidates in all the five states going to polls earlier this year, what with presumably (…)