Sashikala VP
Posts by: Sashikala VP
New life in the middle of the pandemic
Amid nationwide lockdown, Delhi’s expectant parents struggle to reach hospitals for delivery. Where there is a will, there is a way The pandemic has not locked down babies in their mother’s wombs, they are making their way out into a world of uncertainty. With the country under strict restrictions of movement and no public transport, […]
When charity gets locked down
As funds run low amid the global pandemic, NGOs find it hard to stay afloat, even to pay their staff The lockdown enforced to arrest the spread of COVID-19 pandemic has left many jobless, penniless, leading to immeasurable suffering. The Central government itself is now depending on donations via the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and […]
Bootlegging on the rise
Social distancing has made social drinking an impossibility but those desperate for their daily tipple are looking to smuggle liquor to quench their thirst. A possible solution is home delivery… The lockdown in the country has made people experience completely new scenarios, things they perhaps never imagined. One of them is the complete closure of […]
Caught between the virus and the blue sea
Indian blue-collar workers in the Middle East tend to live in close proximity in congested clusters, which is why the requirement of self-isolation creates a piquant situation The Covid-19 pandemic has affected people of all social classes but more disproportionally the lower income groups, labourers and migrants. This is not just the case in India […]
They slave unseen, underpaid
Though the plight of migrant workers was highly visible at the Delhi-UP border, hundreds of bonded labourers are languishing unseen in brick kilns and stone quarries “A number of bonded labourers were freed just three months back — some right before the lockdown. They were just getting back to some semblance of normalcy, working as […]
Surveillance for the greater good?
The measures for containment of Coronavirus on a war footing have paved the way for the disappearance of privacy of the infected. Public interest is riding roughshod over private interest Three weeks ago on 22 March, I received messages revealing that Covid-19 had entered my district. The proof? Photos taken of posters pasted outside homes […]
Robots can come to the rescue
If all goes to plan, from Friday, 3 April, a robot will go into an isolation facility housing patients of Covid-19 to administer food and medication– a step towards providing care without putting medical staff at risk. This revolutionary move in medical care during this pandemic comes — not surprisingly — from Kerala Asimov Robotics, […]
Elderly in a bind
Amid the nation-wide lockdown, senior citizens living alone are finding it hard to manage their day-to-day activities When the Prime Minister announced a nation-wide lockdown on 22 March to keep Covid-19 from spreading, people were given only four hours time to stock up for the next 21 days. This left many senior citizens in a […]