Category Archives: India

This virus is ravaging rich countries. What happens when it hits the poor ones? | Nesrine Malik

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Horror over the west’s failure to contain Covid-19 will pale by comparison if it sweeps the developing world

Though Africa has fewer coronavirus cases and a slower rate of infection than the UK, many countries in the continent have passed dramatically more extreme measures to prevent its spread than Britain has. In my birth country of Sudan, after only one case and one death was registered, all schools and universities were shut down. Several other nations, such as Egypt, have taken the ultimate precaution and closed their airports.

There is no denial here, no mixed messaging, and no unfounded promise of how soon we will send the virus packing.

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Indian people applaud health workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic – video

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People across India have taken to their balconies to praise emergency personnel and sanitation workers who are on the frontline in trying to defeat Covid-19. Millions of people were in lockdown on Sunday as the government imposed a one-day curfew to test the country's ability to fight the pandemic

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India hangings bring end to gang-rape case, but no real justice

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Until India accepts brutality begets brutality, plague of sexual violence will go on

It was a grisly end to a story that has been a stain on India for almost eight years. The hanging on Friday morning of the four men who carried out the 2012 gang-rape and murder of Jyoti Singh – who was christened Nirbhaya by Indian media, meaning “fearless” – marked the end of a drawn out and painful saga that exposed the country’s appalling record on sexual violence against women.

Nirbhaya’s parents openly celebrated that “justice” had finally been served, yet the crowds baying for blood outside the Delhi jail where the execution took place, bearing signs calling for “death to rapists” and cheering as news of the hanging was announced, made for uncomfortable watching.

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Coronavirus: the week the world shut down

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Walls have been raised and societies quarantined as people enter a new reality

It should not have come as a surprise. Life had already been upended in China. Iran and Italy have been reeling for a month. And yet it still felt sudden, this week, when walls were raised across the world, entire societies were quarantined and billions of people realised they had crossed a dividing line: from life before coronavirus to after.

After weeks of governments prevaricating over whether to ban mass gatherings, close businesses or seal borders, restrictions came in a flurry. “We are at war,” announced the French president, Emmanuel Macron. But without adequate weapons to fight the virus, let alone enough hospital beds or ventilators, this was the week the world beat a tactical retreat.

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India executes four men convicted of 2012 Delhi bus rape and murder

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Four found guilty of attack that shocked the world were hanged in capital on Friday morning

India has executed the four men who were convicted of the brutal gang rape and murder of a young woman on bus in Delhi in 2012, a case which shocked the world and brought India’s problem with sexual violence against women into the spotlight.

Akshay Thakur, Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Mukesh Singh had been found guilty in a 2013 trial and sentenced to death by hanging, but their execution had been postponed multiple times due to Supreme Court appeals.

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Saving a city millions of gallons of water – one tap at a time

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A duo in India have been spurred into action to fix pipes to conserve the water supply in Kolkata

There is light drizzle as Vijay Aggarwal and Ajay Mittal manoeuvre their two-wheelers through the labyrinthine alleyways of Kolkata’s Tiljala road slum. Early Sunday morning, the neighbourhood is teeming with activity – women sit on their haunches washing clothes and utensils; half-soaped children scurry in and out of their baths; towel-clad men wait to brush their teeth. Every 50 metres a community pipe gushes out water – plastic bottles, jerry cans and metal buckets are lined up to fill.

The duo along with their plumber, Ravi Shaw, who rides pillion, make their way to the first huddle of people and get to work. All it takes is a blow and twist of a wrench – the nozzle pops loose. Shaw fishes out an orange and white tap from his bag and fits it. While Aggarwal hurriedly plasters a Save Water Save Life sticker on to a lamppost, Mittal tells the people to close the tap once they are done and points out the helpline number on the sticker.

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Delhi’s Muslims despair of justice after police implicated in riots

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Allegations mount that police in Indian capital incited and aided recent mob violence and failed to help Muslim victims

On one side of the marketplace, it was carnage. As the Hindu mob descended, Muslim-owned stalls selling car parts were slowly reduced to debris and ashes. But just 100 metres away stood two police stations.

As the mob attacks came once, then twice and then a third time in this north-east Delhi neighbourhood, desperate stallholders repeatedly ran to Gokalpuri and Dayalpur police stations crying out for help. But each time they found the gates locked from the inside. For three days, no help came.

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‘Do not let this fire burn’: WHO warns Europe over coronavirus

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Europe now centre of pandemic, says WHO, as Spain prepares for state of emergency

The World Health Organization has stepped up its calls for intensified action to fight the coronavirus pandemic, imploring countries “not to let this fire burn”, as Spain said it would declare a 15-day state of emergency from Saturday.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, said Europe – where the virus is present in all 27 EU states and has infected 25,000 people – had become the centre of the epidemic, with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined apart from China.

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‘No school, no skating’: the Indian skate park bringing children together

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Bringing skateboards to children in Madhya Pradesh gives them enthusiasm to go to school and gives girls a confidence in themselves

The children skid into the dusty courtyard at breakfast time, grabbing skateboards from a stack near a tethered brown cow.

Boards jammed under arms, they sprint barefoot past a large well pump, the main water supply for many families here. They slap their wheels on to the still-clean concrete of Janwaar Castle – India’s newest skateboard park.

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Coronavirus: Iran to limit travel between major cities amid more than 3,500 cases – latest updates

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California declares state of emergency; Italian doctors say German man may have been first European with virus and Scotland registers three more cases

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) issued a statement warning businesses to not exploit the coronavirus outbreak and take advantage of people. The CMA said it will take enforcement action against companies that are charging excessive prices or making misleading claims about the efficacy of protective equipment.

CMA chairman Lord Tyrie said: “We will do whatever we can to act against rip-offs and misleading claims, using any or all of our tools; and where we can’t act, we’ll advise government on further steps they could take, if necessary.”

Here’s the latest summary of today’s events.

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‘Yellow bindis’ mean high-risk: India’s new health map for women and children

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Pioneering Rajasthan initiative helps health workers reach families in greatest need first, increasing identification of malnutrition and issues in pregnancy

It’s 10am and time for the first home visit of the day. After consulting a colour-coded map on the wall of the village centre, the three female health workers make their way through the winding lanes of a remote village in Jhalawar district, Rajasthan, where the rice has been harvested and garlic is being planted, to the home of Nirmala.

The yellow bindi (dot) on the map indicates that Nirmala and her children are highly likely to become malnourished without the proper care, which means the family is a priority for health services.

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Inside Delhi: beaten, lynched and burnt alive

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Violence in India’s capital has left more than 40 dead and hundreds injured after a Hindu nationalist rampage, stoked by the rhetoric of Narendra Modi’s populist government

He lay in a bloodied ball on the floor, but the baton blows kept on coming. As the 30 strangers beat him without stopping, Mohammad Zubair closed his eyes, brought his forehead to the ground and prayed.

“The blows kept raining on my head, hands and back,” said Zubair, 37. “I did not ask them to stop beating me. I became silent, tried to hold my breath and stiffen my body.”

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Death toll from Delhi’s worst riots in decades rises to 38

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New citizenship law has triggered days of violence between Muslims and Hindus

The death toll from Delhi’s worst riots in decades has risen to 38, as a political row broke out over the transfer of a judge who criticised the police and government’s handling of the crisis.

Tensions remained high in India’s capital, as thousands of riot police and paramilitaries patrolled streets littered with the debris from days of sectarian riots.

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‘I thought they would kill me’: Delhi mob victim describes attack – video

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Mohammad Zubair, a Muslim, was brutally attacked by a Hindu group as Delhi experienced some of its worst religious riots in decades. ‘My clothes were drenched in blood,’ he said of his ordeal. Muslims and Hindus across the region have been mourning their loved ones after dozens of people were killed in the latest wave of violence

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Delhi protests: India’s worst religious violence in decades – video report

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The death toll from some of the worst religious violence in Delhi in decades has risen to more than 20, as Muslims fled their homes and several mosques in the capital burned after attacks by Hindu rioters. Clashes between Hindu and Muslim groups that began on Sunday showed no sign of abating, with reports of hundreds injured from gunshot wounds, acid burns, stabbings and wounds from beatings and peltings with stones

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Delhi protests: death toll climbs amid worst religious violence for decades

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Calls for army to be deployed as clashes between Hindu and Muslim groups show no sign of abating

The death toll from the worst religious violence in Delhi in decades has risen to 21, as Muslims fled from their homes and several mosques in the capital smouldered after being attacked by Hindu mobs.

The deathly clashes between Hindu and Muslim groups that began on Sunday showed no sign of abating on the third consecutive day, with reports of early morning looting on some Muslim homes which had been abandoned out of fear.

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Delhi rocked by deadly protests during Donald Trump’s India visit

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Hindu and Communist groups clash ahead of US president’s visit, with further conflict over controversial citizenship laws

Donald Trump’s visit to Delhi has been overshadowed by deadly protests that have continued to engulf India’s capital, as protesters and armed mobs wreaked havoc on the streets and the death toll rose to seven.

Violent clashes between groups of protesters who either supported or were opposed to a new citizenship law left one policeman and six civilians dead on Monday. Police deployed teargas and smoke grenades in an attempt to control the violence.

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Against the grain: why millet is making a comeback in rural India

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Nagaland farmers are bringing back the ancient crop – said to have near-miraculous powers – as a less water-intensive alternative to rice

  • Photographs courtesy of NEN Nagaland

Whülü Thurr is a staunch believer in ancient farming traditions. “There is an old adage,” she says, “which goes ‘even a single stalk of millet can revive a dying man’.”

The 65-year-old farmer, from New Phor village in Nagaland state, north-east India, is a devotee of the ancient grain millet, and is well versed in its nutritional benefit. She is one of the few farmers here who has stayed with the traditional crop over the decades. Many other farmers in Nagaland, the majority of whom are women, have stopped growing it due to a lack of demand.

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Trump sings Modi’s praises at massive rally in India – video

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On a two-day visit to India, the US president addressed more than 100,000 people at a massive public rally in Gujarat.

During his speech in Narendra Modi’s home state, Donald Trump said the US and India would shortly announce an ‘incredible’ trade deal, but repeated the line that the Indian PM was a ‘very tough negotiator’. He praised his achievements with the Indian economy and lifting people out of poverty, while Modi said the two countries had a ‘far greater and closer relationship than ever before’.

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