A book a day keeps the blues away; Your lockdown reading is here

Reading is a solitary act, but during the lockdown, you can be alone together with other book lovers, thanks to these digital initiatives.

Pick a Book

* Thousands of e-books are just a download away; many are available on discount, others, free of cost. Publishing house Juggernaut Books has made select titles available for download free on its mobile app. Read the prize-winning Early Indians by Tony Joseph or actor-writer Twinkle Khanna’s Pyjamas are Forgiving, if you are in the mood for something light. For a dose of history, you can turn to Kohinoor by William Dalrymple, or, for policy discussions to Good Economics For Hard Times by Nobel prize-winning economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo

 National Book Trust is also offering some of its titles for free download, as part of its initiative #StayHomeIndiaWithBooks. Over 100 books, in various Indian languages, including Ahomiya, Bangla, Guajarati, Malayalam, Odia, Marathi, Kokborok, Mizo, Bodo, Kannada, Sanskrit, can be downloaded from its website nbtindia.gov.in. Most of these are for children and young adults, but there are also classics by there Rabindranath Tagore, Premchand and others. More titles will be added soon.

* Kolkata-based Seagull Books is offering a free book a day, available for download from its website. The first batch of seven is already out, which includes translated works of writers Banaphool, Alawiya Sobh, Florence Noiville, among others. Return to the site each Sunday for a fresh stash for the week.

* Author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni has penned the first chapter of what is to become a crowd-sourced novel — possibly an apocalyptic one, given the times — in which, Manaroma, a school teacher, wakes up to find not only her husband and children missing, but the whole city quiet. Initiated by Harper Collins India, anyone can participate in the contest and the collection of the prize-winning chapters will result in a book.

Festive Fervour

* A virtual literature festival with book readings, conversations, sneak peaks into authors’ bookshelves, masterclasses and workshops has been organised by Juggernaut Books. You can listen to actor Konkana Sen Sharma read Jhumpa Lehri’s Hell-Heaven, Shabana Azmi read the story Nanhi ki Nani by celebrated Urdu writer Ismat Chughtai or tune into a masterclass by dietician Rujuta Diwekar, who will guide people on quarantine workouts and meal plans.

* Manjul Publishing House is also organising a two-day literary fest from April 11 on their Instagram live. Watch 20 authors, including mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik and Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, on @manjulpublishinghouse.

* The annual Jaipur Literature Festival has also announced a new series called ‘Brave New World’, in which the sprawling grounds of Diggi Palace have been replaced by the boundless possibilities of the internet, with interactions with over 40 authors including Jhumpa Lahiri, Michael Palin, Robert Macfarlane, Aanchal Malhotra, Bee Rowlatt, Edmund de Waal, Peter Carey, Roger Highfield, Tom Holland, among others. Instead of putting out videos of older sessions, the organisers decided to have “digital-specific format, a point-of-view, one-on-one, half-hour sessions, directly talking to the viewers, taking questions”. Peter Frankopanm, who argued about “the danger of a forthcoming pandemic” in a magazine article in December after the outbreak in Wuhan, will be in discussion with Pulitzer-prize winner writer and oncologist Dr Siddhartha Mukherjee; Tom Holland will be talking to Stephen Greenblatt about Roman poet-philosopher Lucretius’s warning on p

Authors’ Lounge

* Organised by Niyogi Books on their facebook page, many authors are doing readings of their works. Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer E Santhosh Kumar narrated a short story from A Fistful of Mustard Seeds, which was originally written in Malayalam over two decades ago.

* Roli Books has launched their digital initiative, Roli Pulse, which will see podcasts, weekly debates and virtual book clubs. They have also been running a weekly line-up of authors speaking on various issues. This week saw activist Aruna Roy discussing the migrant exodus due to the lockdown with Chirag Thakkar, commissioning editor at Roli Books, while Sujata Assomull and fashion designer Rahul Mishra contemplated on the Indian fashion scene in the times of COVID-19.

* Watch out for Harper Collins’s virtual reading party along with ‘The Curious Reader’, a portal for booklovers, on Instagram Live. The first edition, on April 11, will be called ‘Chai Time’, and it will feature Richa S Mukherjee, author of Kanpur Khoofiya Pvt Ltd.

*Pan Macmillian has also joined the bandwagon with a ‘Reading Space’, where they will post videos and articles every Tuesday from their authors, on a range of topics — investigative stories, history, culture and travel, climate change, personality development and spiritual guidance. The first one was by Ankur Bisen, author of Wasted.andemics.

* JCB Prize for Literature has also announced a series on their Instagram called the #TheJCBPrizeCatchUp. Here, readers and aspiring writers can interact with authors and dwell upon the challenges the virus has brought to fore — isolation, loneliness and sickness and how that affects their creative process. On April 11, Mukta Sathe will talk, followed by Vivek Shanbhag on April 13, and Roshan Ali on April 15.

* Pakistani writers Fatima Bhutto and Sanam Maher are also making an effort to bring the global literary community together with a project in support of writers, publishers and booksellers affected by event cancellations and bookshop closures in this time for social distancing. ‘Stay Home, Stay Reading’ has writers from all over the world sending videos reading, in many languages, from their work and works that bring them comfort in these times. While Bhutto read from Alice Greenway’s White Ghost Girls, Irish writer Caoilinn Hughes read from her latest dark comedy The Wild Laughter, and Omar Musa read from his debut novel Here Come the Dogs.

One for the Kids

* Penguin has come up with a line up to keep the children engaged with the online initiative called #OnceUponABookWithPenguin. Since March 30, at 6.30 pm, an author has been going live on Momspresso’s Facebook page every day to tell the kids a story. While Neha Singh’s I Need to Pee, Tazmeen Amna’s The Incredible Adventures of Mr Cheeks: The Carnival of Hastings, and Ruskin Bond’s Mukesh Starts A Zoo turned out to be really popular with children, the upcoming sessions include a reading of Let’s Do This Together by Lubaina on April 11, and Lavanya Karthik will end it with Ninja Nani on April 14. Mompresso has also collaborated with publishing house Hachette with another set of sessions at noon. On April 11, Archana Garodia Gupta and Shruti Gupta will hold an interactive history quiz.

* Meanwhile, Usha Uthup and Nandita Das, among other celebrities, have come together to sing, read and tell stories on Katha with Karadi, a website that Karadi Tales launched to entertain children during the lockdown. They have several audiobooks narrated by actors such R Madhavan, Vidya Balan, Soha Ali Khan and Jaaved Jaaferi, along with virtual storytelling sessions by actor Janaki Sabesh and authors like Natasha Sharma and Sampurna Chattarji. They have released a free e-book titled Farmer Falgu Stays at Home, written by Chitra Soundar, on the importance of social distancing, and another one titled Princess Easy Pleasy – I’m So Bored by Natasha Sharma, a story about how children can quell boredom while indoors. They are hosting daily live events on their Facebook and Instagram pages at 5.30 pm.

Source: Indian Express, 11/04/2020

Why abrogation of labour laws is problematic

It could reduce participation of women in workforce, create incentives for exploitative practices.

Written by Ashish Bharadwaj and Shohini Sengupta

In terms of the number of people infected by COVID-19, India is amongst the worst-hit by the disease. The impact of the pandemic has been particularly tragic for the socio-economically depressed categories of people, including informal economy workers, migrant labourers, pensioners, women and children — people who lie at the intersection of abject poverty, caste and other systemic forms of oppression. The nation-wide lockdown aggravated their problems leading to the mass exodus of migrant labourers who have little or no social security. The institutional response to this humanitarian crisis was grossly inadequate.

Last month, labour laws in 11 states were changed in an attempt to promote business operations and maintain industrial output, particularly in the manufacturing sector. The major changes proposed include increasing working hours from 8 to 12 hours — Uttar Pradesh, however, took back the ordinance on this issue — no inspection of SMEs and firms employing less than 50 workers, easing the process of securing a business license, amending the Industrial Disputes Act to increase the threshold for lay-offs and limiting the submission of annual returns to once a year as opposed to multiple returns under various labour laws.

There has been a growing need to rationalise labour laws in India, with several scholars and economists pointing out the perils of having a vast multitude of labour laws operating at the Centre and state level. This has resulted in both overregulation of the formal economy, driving labour costs in the regulated market, and expanding the number of people outside this formal economy (roughly 90 per cent according to some estimates). The move to assimilate various labour laws into a draft code on social security last year was a necessary first step in this direction. However, removing the scant social welfare protections to correct existing regulatory arbitrariness creates incentives for employers to continue with exploitative labour practices, and even terminate businesses without compensation and other terminal dues.

Women and children have been excluded from the changes in the labour laws. On the face of it, this may appear a good step. But this could create a new incentive for not hiring women, since it is now cheaper to hire men. In addition, a sizeable portion of the relaxations involve doing away with inspections by labour commissioners, resulting in the creation of a regulatory black hole where employers might get away by hiring low-cost child labour. Whilst the Child Labour Prohibition and Regulation Act (1986) remains in effect, there are fears that several employers will pay no heed to the legislation.

Relaxation of labour laws can also have other far-reaching, adverse implications on the rights and well-being of women, young workers and children. According to the World Bank, the female labour force participation rate in India was a meagre 17.5 per cent in 2017-18. Extended working hours and other labour law relaxations are likely to further decrease the participation rates of women in the labour market and increase the already widening wage gap. It will also have a detrimental impact on childcare and could force elder siblings (particularly girls) to shoulder the responsibility of providing care to younger children. Adverse working conditions could have an undesirable impact on the mental health of parents and lead to children adopting adverse coping mechanisms, including violence and self-harm.

The absence of inspections and monitoring and a reduced focus on safety measures at workplaces will increase health hazards and may translate into an increase in health expenditure. This could divert limited resources away from childcare. Informal economy protection measures adopted by countries across the world include unemployment insurance, facilitating direct cash or in-kind transfers, public work programmes and support to struggling small businesses. The right to satisfactory working conditions has to be a necessity both during a crisis, and otherwise. Efficient monitoring mechanisms are the only way to reduce if not prevent exploitation and abuse.

Complete de-regulation of an already oppressive labour market, in the middle of a humanitarian crisis, represents a failure of the state to cater to the needs of the most vulnerable people.

(Bharadwaj is Professor & Dean and Sengupta is Assistant Professor of Research, Jindal School of Banking & Finance, O P Jindal Global University, Sonipat. Views are personal)

Source: Indian Express, 17/06/2020

We must walk tightrope between online and offline learning

If schools do not focus on adapting teaching materials that can reach the last child, then the consequence could be a generation of young illiterates. This will be detrimental for the society at large.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on the way children learn. The accelerating force of digitisation has created a disruptive online phenomenon across schools and learning spaces around the world. It is true that new challenges and opportunities have emerged for educators, parents and students, but we have also entered areas of many uncertainties. Will schools, functioning within old paradigms, summon the courage to shift their practices to support the personal growth of the next generation of learners equitably — whether they are the privileged, marginalised or the disabled?

The teaching landscape has shifted from the notion of a singular path, towards a much more elastic understanding of how we have to walk the tightrope between online and offline learning. Quite suddenly, teachers in the classrooms are learning to redistribute, benefit and liberate learners through technology. At one level, online classes will connect students, and on another, create limitations. This has made us reflect on the inequality not only in bandwidth, gadgets and devices, but also in the fact that most parents do not have the time or ability to support their children in this venture.

If schools do not focus on adapting teaching materials that can reach the last child, then the consequence could be a generation of young illiterates. This will be detrimental for the society at large. The definition of what is meant by quality of education will have to be constantly revised becausConsider this Waldorf concept for education: “The danger lies in thinking that new technologies can substitute old realities or replace them without consequences. When basic experience in nature, in everyday life activities, social interaction and creative play are replaced with too much screen time, a child’s development is compromised. There is a great need to experience learning through all the senses. When children are surrounded by authenticity in the environment and in human interactions, a sense of self is supported in a positive way”.

Schools are larger ecologies that are both human and cultural. And classrooms are palpable living spaces which are diverse in many ways. Clubbing them into one homogenous online model will destroy diversity, inclusivity and dissent which is the essence of education.e too much emphasis on technology could also exclude many children from education.

In many private schools, despite the Right to Education, equality and equity are not integrated into the system. Reportedly, we only have 12 per cent of children from the economically weaker sections attending private schools across the country instead of 25 per cent. In Delhi, several of these students have dropped out because of the lack of facilities, or they have returned to their villages as their parents have lost their livelihoods. These children will be left behind because of their socio-economic condition.

The greatest poverty generally occurs in nations where education is not prioritised through investment in its funding by the state and central governments. The central and state governments must invest in uninterrupted free broadband and create apps like Microsoft teams/Zoom or Google platforms, to which teachers and students should have access — this will lessen the financial constraints. These apps should be synced with programmes like VidyaDaan and e-Pathshala, and a twenty 24/7 support system should be available for seamless functioning.

Unfortunately, millions of children are at severe learning risk now. They may miss weeks, months or even a year (and more) of education. Its impact will only be realised after a decade, when there will be a high rate of young adults who are neither in school nor employed.

Some states have decided not to conduct online classes for primary students because it would be inequitable. Their understanding is that if learning is not available to all, then it should not be available to one. Are we, then saying that everyone should stay unlettered together? Systems should come into place that can ensure a variety of methods to equip all learners — privileged, poor, middle-class and disabled. A child should always be a priority, not an afterthought. It must be remembered that disasters affect everyone: However, children from fragile families are more likely to be traumatised.

Educators must have the generosity to share resources, build communities of practice and develop design thinking as there are no copyrights to learning. This new mutuality will create a culture of engagement towards staff, students and their families.

The pandemic has really laid bare some of the deep-rooted problems in education. It has brought unprecedented challenges for educators, one of which is to recognise the highly excluded category of children with disabilities. The entire focus is on online education, but no announcement has been made about the learning that should be provided to children with disabilities. None of the open education resources (e-Pathshala, SWAYAM etc) have any beneficial platforms for children with special needs. Some progressive schools are negotiating the inclusive learning space independently. However, there are no provisions to ensure any kind of distance, open or home-based education for these children. Therefore, we need to develop a coherent and comprehensive national focus towards technolOnline and offline teaching have to be embedded with emotional and social learning. This will help to create a psychological safety net, increase thinking conversations, decrease social conflict and encourage diverse opinions and questioning minds. Children are educated so that they can take forward primary values, culture and learning, and keep them alive. This can only happen if there is a holistic, empathetic and adaptive audit of online learning which includes without prejudice every child in the community with compassion and care.ogy which also incorporates a humanised approach.

Source: Indian Express, 18/06/2020

Quote of the Day

“Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”

‐ George Bernard Shaw

“जीवन अपने आपको खोजना नहीं है। जीवन अपने आपका निर्माण करना है।”

‐ जॉर्ज बरनार्ड शॉ

Economic and Political Weekly: Table of Contents

Vol. 55, Issue No. 24, 13 Jun, 2020

Editorials

A Dilemma for the Government

Neighbours in Strife

Letters

Globalisation at Peril

S Subramanian, Meha Pant, Ashutosh Srivastava

Rethinking Right to Water

Kanika Jamwal

From the Editor's Desk

Subterranean Politics of Generosity

Gopal Guru

From 50 Years Ago

From 50 Years Ago:Short Walk to Long War

H T Parekh Finance Column

Exiting the Lockdown Sustainably

Avinash Persaud

Commentary

Economic Implication of a Novel Disease Outbreak - Understanding Its Genesis

Unmilan Kalita, Arup Kumar Hazarika, Rajiv Kumar Bora, Subhash Khanna, Tapash Kumar Barman

Parliaments in the Time of the Pandemic

Maansi Verma

Challenges in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Pinarayi Vijayan

Marginalised Migrants and Bihar as an Area of Origin

Avinash Kumar, Manish Kumar

Encroachments on the Waterbodies in Tamil Nadu

S Rajendran

Review Article

Nehru’s Enlightened Middle Way

Rajeev Bhargava

Perspectives

Measuring Access, Quality and Relevance in Higher Education

Pankaj Mittal, Anjali Radkar, Anitha Kurup, Ashwani Kharola, Bhushan Patwardhan

Special Articles

Divergent Responses to the Forest Rights Act in Nagarahole - Disenchantment and Assertion

Priya Gupta

Impact of the Negative Interest Rate Policy on Emerging Asian Markets - An Empirical Investigation

Abhishek Anand, Lekha Chakraborty

Discussion

Water Conservation and Religious Organisations

Sachin Tiwale

Postscript

Fish for an Island

Shreya Yadav

Reading A Journal of the Plague Year during the Lockdown

Sunil Macwan

Indian Global Cinema and the People’s History

Devashish Makhija

Last Lines

Appointments/Programmes/Announcements

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Solar Eclipse 2020 Date, Timings: When and where to watch solar eclipses this year

Solar Eclipse or Surya Grahan 2020 Date, Timings in India: A solar eclipse happens during the New Moon and there are three kinds of such eclipses — total, partial, and annular -- with the addition of a rare hybrid of an annular and a total solar eclipse.

Solar Eclipse 2020 Date: When the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth form a straight line or an almost straight configuration, we witness an eclipse. When the Moon comes between the Sun and Earth, blocking the rays of Sun from directly reaching the planet, a solar eclipse occurs.

Notably, a solar eclipse happens during the New Moon and there are three kinds of such eclipses — total, partial, and annular — with the addition of a rare hybrid of an annular and a total solar eclipse. There will be two solar eclipses this year, the first of which will occur this month and the second one in December.

Solar eclipse June 21, 2020

The first solar eclipse of the year 2020 will happen next week on June 21, 2020. It will be an annular solar eclipse where the Moon will cover the Sun from the centre leaving the outer rim visible, thus creating a ring of fire in the sky. It happens because the Moon is far away from Earth and its relative size is not big enough to entirely cover the Sun.

As per timeanddate.com, the event will be visible in India as well as much of Asia, Africa, the Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and parts of Europe and Australia. The June 21 solar eclipse will start at 9:15 am as per Indian Standard Timing (IST). The full eclipse will start at 10:17 pm and the maximum eclipse will occur at 12:10 in the night. The full eclipse will end at 2:02 pm and the solar eclips

Solar eclipse December 14, 2020

The second and last solar eclipse of the year 2020 will happen on December 14, 2020. It will be a total solar eclipse where the Moon completely blocks the Sun and casts a shadow over the Earth.e will end at 3:04 pm on June 22, 2020.

The celestial event will be visible directly from South America, Pacific, Atlantic, and parts of the Indian Ocean, Antarctica, and Africa. As per timeanddate.com, the solar eclipse will start at 7:03 pm IST, reach the full eclipse by 8:02 pm, and enter the maximum eclipse phase at 9:43 pm. The full eclipse will end at 11:24 pm, following which the partial eclipse will start and end by 12:23 am on December 15, 2020

Source: Indian Express, 16/06/2020

2020 Human Development Report to focus on meeting people’s aspirations in balance with the planet

COVID-19 and its unprecedented effects on human development are a wake-up call to the potential consequences for people’s wellbeing from the relentless pressure we are placing on nature and the planet.

The pandemic has also cast light on how our interconnected societies face vulnerabilities anywhere until threats are addressed everywhere. Moreover, these vulnerabilities are carving deeper cleavages in societies and are set to become ever more worrying in the face of climate change and biodiversity loss.

The 2020 Human Development Report will delve into these issues and focus on how to rekindle our relationship with nature and improve people’s lives today and in the future, in balance with the planet.

“It makes no sense to think of people - and development - as somehow separate from the planet. We are embedded in nature. Neglecting this not only threatens future generations with catastrophic risks but is already blighting the lives of many today,” says Pedro Conceição, Director of the Human Development Report Office at UNDP.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, and land use change point to an unprecedented moment in our 200,000 years as a species and in the 4.6 billion years of the Earth, in which humans have now become a geological force. Some argue that we are living in a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. These human-led impacts risk our common future and are also already eroding opportunities and destroying the livelihoods of many, threatening to deepen existing inequalities.

”We are better prepared than ever to understand the risks and threats that we confront, but also to act upon them.” says Conceição. “Decisive action is needed now, and it is feasible if we confront the social, economic, and technological challenges that stand in the way of “transforming our world,” as called for in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.”

All too often, development reports focus on nature or on people. This is a false dichotomy in the Anthropocene. With the natural and social sciences, along with the humanities, now collaborating more intensely, new insights are emerging that can inform the public debate and decision making. The 2020 report will draw on these findings, bringing together the latest understanding of planetary systems and analysis of our unequal world within a people-centered human development lens that looks at the fate of people and planet side by side.

The Sustainable Development Goals have already mapped out a future the world aspires to achieve. This report will discuss the steps needed to get there, and how to take them. It will consider the power of shifting social norms and values, the role of science and technology, scaling up the use of nature-based solutions, and shifting market incentives for the allocation of capital and resources.

New metrics to guide decision making will also be unveiled, offering insights into the evolution of ecosystems and their interaction with people.

For regular updates on the 2020 HDR please visit: http://hdr.undp.org/en/towards-hdr-2020