Mourning Rohith Vemula, Who Could Not Rescue Himself From the ‘Fatal Accident’ of His Birth
Harsh Mander
2017
In the summer of 2016, many students sat on a hunger strike in the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. They were protesting the punishment meted out to them by the university authorities for having demonstrated against the hanging of Afzal Guru. On the wall behind their protest site, they had painted a larger than life portrait of a beaming Rohith Vemula. Below it was the inscription: 1989-Forever.
Rohith Vemula’s Velivada: A Phoenix That Keeps Rising
Anirban Bhattacharya
The Wire, 2019
It has been three years, and it seems the spectre of Rohith Vemula still continues to haunt the saffron citadels of power. On a cold and chilly winter morning, just a couple of weeks before the third anniversary of Rohith’s institutional murder, we woke up to the news of the Velivada being torn down by the University of Hyderabad administration. However, this was not the first time that the Velivada was attacked, vandalised or under siege. Through the summer of 2016, there were multiple attempts to bring it down. Even the bust of B.R. Ambedkar was removed from Velivada clandestinely in July 2016. Days later, that of Rohith had been desecrated.
Inadequate Pensions Leave India’s Elderly No Choice But To Work
Kinjal Sampat and Nandini Dey
India Spend, 2017
The logic behind old age pension is to enable those beyond a certain age to maintain a reasonable standard of living without having to engage in paid labour. In India, this is empirically true for people who receive assured monthly pensions following their retirement from work, but, in the non-formal sector, people do not retire from work at any stipulated age. The participation of the elderly in the workforce is all pervasive, particularly in the unorganised sector that employs the majority of Indians, without formal conditions of employment. In the absence of adequate income and social security, the elderly lack real choice in determining the extent, duration and nature of their engagement with paid work.
As India Ages, Indians Seeks Universal Pension From The Government
Kinjal Sampat and Nandini Dey
India Spend, 2017
India’s 860 million-strong working population (15-64 years), the world’s largest, is beginning to age. Over the next 33 years, by 2050, 324 million Indians, or 20% of the population, will be above 60 years of age. If pension continues to cover only 35% of senior citizens as it does today, 200 million, or 61.7% of India’s elderly population, will be without any income security by 2050.
There’s Nothing Universal or Basic About Universal Basic Income in India
Kinjal Sampat and Vivek Mishra
The Wire, 2017
Universal Basic Income is only an idea in the making, but within its first year of conceptualisation, it seems like the first two terms of the acronym have already been reduced to notional ideas. The time will be ripe for discussing UBI when the state is able to assure both universality and adequacy and match it with adequate public infrastructure and safeguards from volatile market fluctuations.
Job Security in India Falls Even as GDP Continues to Rise
Vivek Mishra and Anirban Bhattacharya
The Wire, 2017
The informal sector generates around 50% of India’s GDP. It employs more than 90% of country’s workforce. The total figure for formal and informal employment in the unorganised sector is 82.7%. Of the current workforce of around 475 million, around 400 million, considerably larger than the population of the US, are employed with little job security or any formal protection of the labour law regime.
Some Paths to Forgiveness
Harsh Mander
The Hindu, 2011
Is there a way to build trust, confidence and eventually empathy between previously embroiled people? Through human history, estranged people’s have collectively sought or rediscovered ways of living together with peace, faith and goodwill. In the wake of the violence of Partition, and innumerable communal pogroms which followed, this is a path which Hindu and Muslim communities in India must still traverse.
