Digital Divide, Raging Floods, and the 2 Million Mark
Aug 9,2020
This week, we look at India's 'bright spot' in the pandemic, the rural digital divide, raging floods across parts of India, and the 2-million case mark, among other stories.
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Rural
Agriculture a “bright” spot in the pandemic
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that the agricultural sector has emerged as a "bright spot" amid the coronavirus pandemic. "Developments have had a salutary effect on rural demand as reflected in fertiliser production and sales of tractors, motorcycles and fast-moving consumer goods," RBI said in its Monetary Policy statement on Thursday.
"Owing to good progress of monsoon in July, sowing in the season has been higher by 5.9% as of 31st July 2020 as compared to last five year average." it added.
More on India’s ‘bright’ spot in the pandemic.
The digital divide for online classes
With classes going online, an apt digital infrastructure is the least that can be expected.
However, this is not the case in Orissa, as more than 20% villages in the state do not have mobile connectivity, according to Economic Survey (2018-19).
For a total audience of 100, the state has just a little more than 28 internet subscribers, compared to the national average of 32.
Similarly, the learning level of students is also disapproving. At least 59 per cent of the students in class V failed to meet the required learning level in English. The figures were 53 per cent in Mathematics and 31 per cent in Odia language.
Here’s more on what’s going on with Orissa’s digital divide.
16.47 lakh tap connections in rural Kerala
As part of the Centre’s Jal Jeevan mission, the Kerala Water Authority (KWA) will provide fresh 16.47 lakh drinking water tap connections in 719 panchayats in the state. In KWA’s meeting held in Thiruvananthapuram, projects worth 4,343 crore were submitted in this regard.
The numbers are to exemplify further by 2024. According to the KWA, with a total of 52.85 connections.
The first part of this project will focus on planning, capacity building, and deciding which panchayats will be beneficiaries of this nationwide scheme which sees itself picking pace in Kerala.
Centre scraps handloom, handicraft boards
India celebrated National Handloom Day on August 7, but the first time without the Ann India Handloom Board as the board has recently been scrapped by the government.
The board provided a forum for various stakeholders from across India — who made up two-thirds of the boards — to bring their issues to the table directly, bypassing bottlenecks, said in a DTH report.
Now that the board has been scrapped, “small-scale artisans would be blotted away by the move.”
The lack of proper remuneration has also seen the sector lose half of its workforce in the last 25 years.
Read more on what such a move means for the handloom sector, which is already being overtaken by power looms.
Environment
A Flooded India
The monsoons seem to have hit their peak with Assam and Bihar flooded, and now, the heavy rains have hit South India, with Kerala and parts of Karnataka seeing massive landslides and heavy rainfall. This is due to the strong south-westerly / westerly monsoonal flow over the Arabian Sea off the Karnataka and Kerala coasts at lower tropospheric levels.
In Kerala, heavy rain was forecast in Idukki, Palakkad, Thrissur and Wayanad. for the next two days. Water levels in the Idukki and Mullaperiyar dams have also increased. Up until recently, Kerala reported a deficit rainfall of 10%, but by the very next day, several districts issued red alerts. 36 people have been reported dead, with more missing.
The IMD’s regional met centre in Bengaluru has issued an orange alert across coastal Karnataka from this weekend, and in south interior Karnataka for Sunday due to the likelihood of wide and heavy showers. So far, rains have been observed over Kodagu, Gokarna, Chickmangaluru, Hassan, and Mysuru. The coastal districts include Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, and Kodagu. In this monsoon season, i.e. June to August right now, Karnataka has reported 14% higher rainfall than the average.
Mumbai was also not spared in this monsoon storm, although fewer people have suffered losses. A reason for the repeated flooding of Mumbai has been found to be its 140 year old drainage system, which has not been updated ever since. Read about it here.
As for Assam and Bihar, things still look rough. In Bihar, the number of people evacuated has reached 5.08 lakh. Still swollen rivers outside of India lead to floods on Saturday, raising the number of people affected to over 73 lakh as per the disaster management department. No loss of life has been reported at this time.
In Assam, flood waters have started receding, yet 84,100 people in 10 districts are still affected by the floods as per an official bulletin earlier this week. Floods and landslides have cost 136 lives this year. A total of 157 animals have also lost their lives, while 174 of them were rescued in Kaziranga National Park.
Why does India keep flooding, and why do we see consistent delgues of rains instead of more spread out and even monsoons? Climate change is to blame for a big part, sure, but what else can be done? The Yale School of Environment sums is up - read it to know more and understand the different aspects involved.
Other stories:
The auctioning off of land in Kashmir has led to most land contracts, especially riverbeds for mineral mining, being held by outsiders to Kashmir, and without the required environmental clearance. What’s more, is that the government has asked to fasttrack the environmental processes here. With the haste in which it’s being done, it isn’t hard to presuppose that the government and companies are going to go ahead with the projects, with ot without the clearances. Read more about this here.
Also, just to show the extent of illegality, read this report by the ET that talks about a 9000 crore hydro project on the Jhelum, allegedly done by flouting all rules.
Have another report, by Mongabay India, that talks about the impact of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act 2019, which essentially looks to take up forest land for development.
Read about the 2,000 women in Tamil Nadu who dive to collect seaweed, which is then used to make agar, a thickener in food and medicines. They were first made “thieves in their own backyard,” as per Venugopal to the Scroll, the programme head for the non-profit International Collective in Support of Fishworkers Trust, and now, climate change is affecting their livelihoods as well.
The Beirut blast due to 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploding after being kept unattended in a warehouse has started the discussion of India’s handling of the compound - India imports around 300,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate every year. Read all about the why, what, and how here.
If you’re still confused about the Environmental Impact Assessment draft 2020, here is an in-depth explainer by LiveLaw. Don’t forget to email in about how bad it is - because it is. Details for that are here.
Health
The 2-million mark
India’s tally crossed the 20-lakh mark of COVID cases on Friday, and the daily cases have rised to approx. 62,000 new cases per day. This is a given, considering there are not many states with lockdowns. The global coronavirus cases crossed 1.90 crore as per Johns Hopkins University, with more than 1.14 crore people having recovered. Here are the helpline numbers for states and the Union Territories.
The big news for this week is this: the Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers have been the backbone of the fight against COVID, along with a variety of other rural immunization programmes. But now, to highlight the conditions they work in and the compensation they receive, 600,000 of the country's one million ASHA workers went on a strike on August 7th for two days.
They ask for better and timely pay along with enough safety measures - they are reported to get only Rs. 2000 a month without masks or sanitizers. Some have also not received the extra Rs. 2000 they were meant to. This also isn’t their first strike during COVID - In July, up to 40,000 ASHA workers went on strike in Karnataka to demand better safety equipment and a hike in fixed salary to Rs 12,000.
Read more here about the overall strike, and here about the strike in July.
Fire in hotel used as COVID facility kills 7 in Vijaywada
At least seven people were killed in a fire at a hotel, which is being used as a COVID-19 facility, in Andhra Pradesh's Vijayawada early on Sunday. "The incident took place around 5 am. Around 22 patients are being treated in the hospital. We are evacuating the entire building," Mohammad Imtiaz, Krishna's district collector, said. The reason of fire appears to be a short circuit, he added.
Other stories:
A private hospital in Navrangpura area in Gujarat caught fire, which also led to eight patients dying of suffocation in the COVID ICU ward on the fourth floor. As per the Ahmedabad Fire and Emergency Services Chief Fire Officer M F Dastur to The Indian Express, the 22-year-old hospital had no fire clearance. Sources in the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation have also revealed that out of up to 2,000 private hospitals and nursing homes, less than 100 have a valid fire safety NOC.
Remember the Baghjan oil well fire? The tug-of-war between the National Green Tribunal and OIL India is still going on vis-a-vis the compensation to be provided by OIL and the assessment of the fire. The NGT in June had submitted a report, which spoke about the major lapses, lack of planning, execution and supervision, yet OIL objected to this assessment as it was done through solely “desk research.” However, NGT has objected to their objection.
California-based Esri, an international supplier of GIS software, has set up online hubs for healthcare departments of various state governments in India, and has integrated maps with data from different facilities, captive centres, and containment zones. It publishes them on an easy-to-use dashboard for authorities. GIS can also be used to better manage large COVID-19 facilities and access real-time information on the availability of beds and ventilators.