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Jan 6, 2025 | 
scroll.in | Shreehari Paliath
Panch Manzila(five-storied building), as locals refer to the building, has a quaint and regal ring to it. But neither its run-down facade nor the dilapidated interiors offer opulence to hundreds of Odia migrant workers, mostly from southern Odisha’s Ganjam district, who live there and eat at one of the eight messes in the building.
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Jan 4, 2025 | 
scroll.in | Shreehari Paliath
India’s prison overcrowding is a persistent problem. While there have been multiple Supreme Court orders to ensure prisoners are released on bail without onerous conditions, and the government has recently launched a scheme to support bail for poor prisoners, there are still around half a million incarcerated people.
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Dec 29, 2024 | 
newslaundry.com | Shreehari Paliath
Despite a 2022 UTRC special campaign to identify undertrial prisoners eligible for release and subsequently reduce the overcrowding of prisoners, prison occupancy in India increased by one percentage point to 131 percent in 2022. Based on April 2024 UTRC data, with a prison capacity of 4,36,266, prisons are overcrowded by 21 percent. India is ranked 74 in terms of occupancy rates, with 135 countries and territories having lower occupancy rates, according to the World Prison Brief.
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Dec 26, 2024 | 
indiaspend.com | Shreehari Paliath
Surat: Panch Manzila (five-storied building), as locals refer to the building, has a quaint and regal ring to it. But neither its run-down facade nor the dilapidated interiors offer opulence to hundreds of Odia migrant workers, mostly from southern Odisha’s Ganjam district, who live there and eat at one of the eight messes in the building.
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Oct 6, 2024 | 
newslaundry.com | Shreehari Paliath |India Spend
Two weeks ago,Sadia*, a 19-year-old Rohingya asylum seeker in India, was finally able to terminate her pregnancy that resulted from a reported rape that happened in Tripura in June. It cost her 10,000 Bangladeshi Taka (Rs 7,000) to abort in a private hospital in Bangladesh.
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Sep 1, 2024 | 
scroll.in | Shreehari Paliath
In June, Bengaluru witnessed a protest by aggregator platform Urban Company’s women workers in the beauty segment, categorised as “partners” or “independent contractors” by the gig economy. The protest mostly stemmed from the company’s decision to bring in new terms of service without consulting workers which impacted their ability to remain flexible, a much touted benefit reiterated by the gig economy.
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Aug 26, 2024 | 
thewire.in | Shreehari Paliath |India Spend
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May 13, 2024 | 
scroll.in | Shreehari Paliath
In 2021, three in four people in India could not afford a healthy diet. In South Asia, the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted work and disproportionately affected poorer families. Following the pandemic in 2020, the Indira Rasoi Yojana, now called Shree Annapurna Rasoi Yojana, was started by the Congress-led government in Rajasthan to provide subsidised nutritious meals for the urban poor. This was similar to earlier initiatives in Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Karnataka.
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Apr 10, 2024 | 
scroll.in | Shreehari Paliath
Kartik Naik is in his 40s, and works as a mason’s helper in the Nettoor area, in Kerala’s Ernakulam, where mostly Odia male migrant labourers reside. As polling for his state’s assembly and for the Lok Sabha nears, Kartik says that he does not plan to return to his hometown of Surada in Ganjam district, 1,800 km away, to vote. “I cannot leave my job and go home just to vote, and spend money on travel and other expenses,” said Kartik.
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Apr 9, 2024 | 
thewire.in | Shreehari Paliath |India Spend
Unlike him, his roommate Babulal Naik was returning home after a year for a much-needed break, he said, which also happens to coincide with elections. In nearly three decades, the roommates–both from the Scheduled Caste Pano community in Odisha–have worked in Surat, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Ernakulam. Migrant workers contribute 10% of India’s gross domestic product. But exercising their vote during elections is a struggle for many.
