THE piece rated home based workers and part time domestic workers constitute some of the most vulnerable sections of the working class in the city of Delhi. As per the NSSO survey of 2009-10, there are at least six lakh home based workers working in different industries in the city. The count of domestic workers in Delhi is, however, not exactly known. The ILO estimated that there are about 90 million domestic workers in the country, but the number of part time domestic workers in the city is yet to be established.

IN the past few days, tensions in Ukraine have escalated, with Russia moving its troops for military exercises along the border with Ukraine. It vowed to protect the interests of Russian citizens living in the East and Southern regions of the country and naval forces stationed in Crimea. Reports indicate that Ukrainian naval chief had expressed his support to Russia, while Ukraine had called for 'popular mobilisation'.

WEST Bengal now stands out among the states in terms of atrocities against women. National Commission for Women had to intervene more than once and was forced to visit the state. There is a strong association between increased violence against women in the state and the rule of Trinamul Congress after 2011. Immediately after the party came to power in May 2011, atrocities against women began to rise. This association cannot be seen as accidental, there is a politics behind this association. During the 34 years of Left Front rule, the state was never in this kind of miserable situation.

ON January 29, 2014, 26 year old Yuma Sherpa, died in the aftermath of a surgical procedure to harvest eggs from her body, as part of the egg donation programme of a private clinic based in Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi.

Yuma was persuaded by agents to donate her eggs for a surrogacy, and started undergoing the procedure early this year. Subsequently, she wanted to stop the procedure and back out altogether as she was suffering from discomfort caused by the injections, but was told by the doctor at the clinic that it was too late to go back.

ON the eve of the declaration of the schedule for general elections in 2014, P Chidambaram, finance minister in the outgoing UPA government, chose to meet the chief executives of India’s public sector banks. The cynical would argue that this must be a last attempt to get the banks to dole out some more sops before the election date. If that were to impress a section of the electorate at all, it is a clever strategy.