India coronavirus dispatch: A constitutional duty towards our urban poor

From treating migrant workers justly and humanely, to flattening the state-level curves, and how epidemics change the course of nations - read these and more in today's dispatch

Here’s a round-up of important coronavirus-related articles from across Indian publications. From treating migrant workers justly and humanely, to flattening the state-level curves, and how epidemics change the course of nations — read these and more in today’s India dispatch.

Citizens Under Lockdown

Moved from Yamuna bank, 400 workers battle mosquitoes in school near Delhi’s largest garbage dump: Relocated to a school in Delhi, workers complain about lack of water in taps, the swarm of mosquitoes, and the threat of malaria and dengue. Read here about the problems facing the workers who were relocated from the Yamuna bank.

Battered by Covid-19 lockdown, India’s formal sector is resorting to massive layoffs and pay cuts: The information technology (IT), aviation, media, and tourism industries are among the most affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Experts advise employees with job security to be adaptive to change, and those who have lost jobs to make use of the opportunity. Read more here.

Little access to healthcare, cramped quarters put Rohingyas at high risk: Thousands of Rohingya refugees in the National Capital Region of Delhi are at a high risk of contracting Covid-19, as they live in cramped habitations and have limited access to public healthcare. Except for the latest directive, there have been no specific policy announcements about measures for the community in India. Read more here.

Long Reads

Even if it can’t let migrant workers go home, India must treat them justly and humanely: Is the Union government at fault for not helping migrants return home, or is Maharashtra to blame for failing to acknowledge that the health crisis could spread across the country with migrants? Read here to understand why there are no simple answers.

Opinion

It is our constitutional duty to ensure a safety net for the economically weaker sections of society: The state has to prioritise the expenditure of its resources in such a manner so as to first meet its basic constitutional obligations. While the executive is best positioned to formulate and execute appropriate policy solutions in this regard, the constitutional courts in the country will have to goad and guide the executive to direct its resources towards its constitutional object of ensuring economic justice. Read more here.

The infected economy: The cost of locking down the country is particularly high for the urban poor in India. Besides, the reality of urban living reduces the efficacy of a lockdown in containing the spread of Covid-19. Read here to understand why a bigger fiscal package is needed to approach the direct cost of the lockdown, and how it can be financed.

Managing Covid-19

How Kerala flattened the Covid-19 curve: Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja, who has won praise for her commendable handling of the pandemic spoke about the state’s strategy, on investing in public health infrastructure, and more. Read her interview here.

ICMR’s latest clarification on its hydroxychloroquine policy is just baffling: The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) recently issued a clarification on a study to evaluate the prophylactic efficacy of hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19. Read here to know why the clarification has only raised more questions about whether ICMR is really groping in the dark with this unproven drug.

How India’s states can read Covid-19 data to make the most of this lockdown: The true success of the lockdown will be clear only in the coming weeks, as it is possible that the confirmed cases and deaths being identified now were infected by the virus before the lockdown. Read here to understand how the extended lockdown is a good opportunity for states to expand testing and flatten the state-level curves.

Six charts show that India needs to (and can afford to) universalise PDS: While the Centre has announced that it will provide 5 kg of grain – rice or wheat – to each of the 800 million beneficiaries of the public distribution system (PDS), the worry is that a large proportion of those who are outside the PDS net are also food insecure. Read here to understand the problem and how it can be solved.

Understanding Covid-19

How coronavirus cases doubled in India and elsewhere: How long did Covid-19 cases take to double from 750 to 1,500, then to 3,000, and 6,000, and 12,000? Here is a comparison of doubling of rates in India and the 19 countries with a higher case count (until Thursday). Read it here.

Epidemics change the course of nations and transform societies. Here are four lessons from history: Covid-19 will have its own lasting political effects. History offers us lessons on how epidemics transform society – and how diseases leave their imprint on the world’s social and political fabric. Here are four such lessons to consider.