Weekly Update on Covid-19

Below we publish the Situation and the Peoples Health Movement response issued by Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) and All India People’s Science Network (AIPSN) on March 24, 20201. Community Transmission of the coronavirus seems to be very possibly well underway and India is now in what was being referred to as stage 3. While there were clear weaknesses in containment during stage 2, notably delays in restrictions on air passengers entering India and weaknesses particularly in effective home quarantine measures, community transmission was almost inevitable.

Ensure Immediate Financial Allocation for Food & Livelihood Support: AIKS & AIAWU

Below we publish the text of the letter written by the All India Kisan Sabha and All India Agricultural Workers' Union to the prime minister, on March 26, regarding the Covid-19 and lockdown, seeking mitigation of the suffering of the peasantry and toiling masses.THE country is reeling under the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic. The central government’s decision of lockdown declared by you for 21 days across the country to contain the pandemic is inevitable.

MAHARASHTRA: AIKS Holds Dharna on Land Issues

THE AIKS Maharashtra state council held a state level day-long dharna of hundreds of peasants outside the divisional commissionerate at Aurangabad, which is the centre of the Marathwada region, on March 13, 2020.The main demand was the vesting of temple, inami, wakf, pasture and varkas lands in the names of the peasants cultivating them for generations. There are lakhs of acres of such lands in Maharashtra and lakhs of peasant households cultivating them.

AIAWU Demands Unemployment Allowance for Agri Workers

THE country is in a fear psychosis because of the ever increasing cases of coronavirus infected, which need to be prevented from going out of hand. All public institutions starting from Supreme Court to educational institutions are going through self imposed quarantines. Several government offices have become temporarily dysfunctional. The government itself is asking people to restrict themselves to their homes. Moreover, several state governments and the central government are encouraging people to improve their sanitation and use masks, hand sanitizers etc.

How Other Countries are Dealing with the Economic Fall-Out of Coronovirus

United Kingdom: UK unveiled a range of financial measures including £330bn in loans, £20bn in other aid, a business rates holiday, and grants for retailers and pubs. Statutory sick pay of £94.25 per week will be available from the first day of illness rather than the fourth.British government would pay grants covering upto 80 per cent of the salary of workers, if companies kept them on their payroll, instead of laying them off. The extraordinary payment will be worth upto £2,500 a month, just above the median income. This will be for three months starting from March 1.

Women Resolve to Defend Constitution & Women’s Rights, Oppose Violence

MARCH 8 International Women’s Day (IWD) is celebrated all over the world to reiterate the struggle for equality, justice and a violence free life for women. The German revolutionary Clara Zetkin proposed in the International Socialist Women’s Conference held in Copenhagen, Denmark in August 1910 that March 8 be celebrated as International Women’s Day. 100 women delegates from 17 countries agreed with the idea as a strategy to promote equal rights including suffrage for women. Women demanded that they be given the right to vote and to hold public office.

Comprehensive Measures to Fight Pandemic & Recession

THE Covid-19 pandemic has hit the global economy badly and its impact is still unfolding. According to the WHO, as of March 18, the pandemic had spread to 164 countries and territories, with confirmed cases of over 194,000 and resulting in the death of over 7,800 people.With respect to the global economy, it is certain that there will be a recession. Economic activities are crippled in various sectors, particularly travel, tourism, oil sector and services. Supply chains have been disrupted, breaking production chains all over the world.

THE WEEK IN PARLIAMENT

THE second part of the budget session of parliament started on March 3. On the first day itself, the CPI(M) and other opposition parties unitedly sought resignation of home minister Amit Shah and moved adjournment motion on the Delhi riots, which claimed over 50 lives, in both the houses. Due to uproar over the matter, proceedings were paralysed and both houses were adjourned.On March 11, Lok Sabha held a short duration discussion on recent law and order situation in Delhi.

Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Sukhdev: 90th Year of Martyrdom: Significance of Observing Martyrdom Day

THE CC of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), at its meeting in Thiruvananthapuram in January, had given a call for a door-to-door campaign to be conducted in the month of March explaining to the people why they should not answer any question in the forthcoming exercise of enumeration for the National Population Register (NPR), between April 1 and September 30. This campaign was to culminate on March 23, the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. Subsequently, the Left parties also gave a similar call. The choice of the martyrdom day was to highlight the struggle of the

Some Basic Lessons from the Pandemic

THE coronavirus attack has so far been much less deadly than the Spanish flu of a century ago. That had affected 500 million people worldwide, about 27 per cent of the world’s population of the time, and had a death rate of about 10 per cent among those affected. (Estimates of death vary greatly; this is a sort of mean). In India alone 17 million people are estimated by some to have died because of it.

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