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brajeshupadhyay · 4 years

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Coronavirus LIVE Updates: 350 local trains to ply in Mumbai from today only for essential service workers; city reports 77,197 COVID-19 cases

08:34 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in West Bengal Latest Updates

West Bengal allows 50 people at weddings, funerals

The West Bengal government has allowed 50 people at marriage functions and funerals during the next phase of the coronavirus lockdown from 1 to 31 July. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said morning walks will be allowed from 5.30 am till 8.30 am, provided social distancing and all other norms are strictly followed".

08:24 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Uttar Pradesh Latest Updates

Gurugram civic body issues guidelines for resident welfare associations

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram on Wednesday has issued guidelines for resident welfare associations, to be followed till 31 July during Unlock 2.0. The entry of maids/house-helps be allowed with restrictions, including mandatory use of face-mask, thermal scanning and hand sanitisation at the gate.

If the area of residence of maid or house-helps has been declared as containment zone or large outbreak region then their entry is not to be permitted by RWA: Municipal Corporation of Gurugram

Haryana: Municipal Corporation of Gurugram issues guidelines for resident welfare associations,to be followed till 31st July during #Unlock2. Entry of maids/house-helps be allowed with restrictions, including mandatory use of face-mask,thermal scanning&hand sanitisation at gate pic.twitter.com/IvxhSBMtSN

— ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2020

08:03 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak Latest Updates

Security Council trying again for first COVID-19 resolution

The UN Security Council is trying again to reach agreement on its first resolution on COVID-19 since the coronavirus started circling the global in February, after a lengthy dispute between the US and China over mentioning the World Health Organization, reports AP.

A revised draft resolution by France and China was submitted for a vote on Tuesday and the result is expected to be announced on Wednesday.

07:51 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in India Latest Updates

Unlock 2.0 begins today

On 29 June, the Centre had announced guidelines for ‘Unlock 2.0’, the second phase of reopening of economic and other activities in the country. These will be applicable from today. Night curfew timings are being further relaxed and curfew shall be in force from 10.00 pm to 5.00 am.

While schools and colleges will continue to remain closed, there have been further restrictions regarding hotels and restaurants.

07:43 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak Latest Updates

Global COVID-19 cases now at 1.03 crore

Total confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the world stand at 1.03 crore, according to the Johns Hopkins University CSSE. This figure includes COVID-19 patients who have recovered and the overall global death toll which stands at 5.06 lakh.

With over 26 lakh reported cases till date, the United States is the worst-affected country in the world. The US is followed by Brazil, Russia, India and the United Kingdom.

07:38 (IST)

Coronavirus Outbreak in Maharashtra Latest Updates

More local trains for essential services staff from today

Central Railway and Western Railway will run additional 150 and 148 local services, respectively, in Mumbai from 1 July, reports PTI. Only essential staff including those of Centre, IT, defense, Raj Bhavan will be allowed and no general passengers will be allowed yet, the news agency quotes Railways minister Piyush Goyal as saying.

Coronavirus LATEST Updates: The Railways will expand its suburban services in Mumbai from today and run 350 trains each in the Central and Western Railway Zones, Union Minister Piyush Goyal said. The trains will, however, only carry essential services personnel identified by the Maharashtra government. Mumbai recorded 903 new cases, pushing the total number of cases to rise to 77,197 on Tuesday.

As Unlock-2 begins from Wednesday, India's COVID-19 tally climbed to 5,66,840 with nearly 66 percent cases reported in June alone. The nationwide toll rose to 16,893 with 418 new fatalities being reported in 24 hours, according to the Union Health Ministry data.

On Tuesday, Tamil Nadu again surpassed Delhi to regain the second spot among the list of worst-hit states by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced an extension of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY), a government scheme, which aims to provide free ration for 80 crore people, by five more months till the end of November.

In his televised address Tuesday, the prime minister also said it is a cause of worry that people are not adhering as strictly to rules and precautions during the 'unlock' phase as they did during the lockdown.

Modi announces extension of free ration scheme

Stating the cost to the exchequer in extending the PMGKAY scheme, the prime minister said that over Rs 90,000 crore will be spent on the scheme, and if the last three months' expenditure on account of the free ration scheme is added, then the total budget will be about Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

The scheme was rolled out for three months from April soon after the nationwide lockdown was announced to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Noting that July marks the beginning of the festive season when people's needs as well as expenditure increase, Modi said that the government has decided to extend the scheme till November end.

The prime minister also said in his 16-minute address that the Central Government is working on the "one nation, one ration card" initiative which, he added, will benefit people living outside their home for employment and other needs the most.

This was Modi's sixth address to the nation after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic

The prime minister said that each member of a family covered under the scheme will get five kilogrammes of wheat or rice, and every family will get one kilogramme whole gram per month as well.

Modi, however, lamented that there is an increasing "negligence" in personal and social behaviour during the easing of restrictions and urged people to be more vigilant.

"We have also seen that since 'Unlock-1', there is increasing negligence in personal and social behaviour. Earlier, we were very careful with respect to wearing of masks, social distancing and washing of hands for 20 seconds. But today, when we need to be more careful, increasing negligence is a cause of worry," he said and urged the people to follow all necessary precautions.

He also emphasised on strict enforcement of rules, especially in containment zones.

"Those not following the rules will need to be stopped and cautioned," he said, stressing "be it a village pradhan or the prime minister, no one is above the law in India".

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu record most cases

Maharashtra remained the highest contributor to the single day rise in cases, registering over 5,200 coronavirus infections, according to the Union Health Ministry.

Recording nearly 4,000 cases in the last 24 hours, Tamil Nadu has again surpassed Delhi to regain the second spot among the list of worst-hit states by the pandemic.

Karnataka also recorded more than 1,100 cases overtaking Haryana and Andhra Pradesh.

Delhi saw an increase of 2,084 cases in the past 24 hours. In June, the national capital added over 64,000 fresh cases to its tally, while over 47,357 patients recovered, were discharged or migrated.

The total number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 15,394 in Telangana, 14,295 in Karnataka, 14,210 in Haryana, 13,891 in Andhra Pradesh, and 13,370 in Madhya Pradesh.

It has risen to 9,640 in Bihar, 7,752 in Assam, 7,237 in Jammu and Kashmir and 6,859 in Odisha. Punjab has reported 5,418 novel coronavirus infections so far, while Kerala has 4,189 cases.

A total of 2,831 people have been infected by the virus in Uttarakhand, 2,761 in Chhattisgarh, 2,426 in Jharkhand, 1,380 in Tripura, 1,227 in Manipur, 1,198 in Goa, 964 in Ladakh and 942 in Himachal Pradesh. Puducherry has recorded 619 COVID-19 cases, Chandigarh 435, Nagaland 434 and Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu together have reported 203 COVID-19 cases.

Arunachal Pradesh reported 187 cases, Mizoram has 148 cases, Andaman and Nicobar Islands has 90, Sikkim has registered 88 infections so far, while Meghalaya has recorded 47 cases.

Delhi govt sets ball rolling for 'plasma bank'

The Delhi government has set the ball rolling to establish the first-of-its-kind "plasma bank" for treatment of COVID-19 at a facility in the National Capital and its modalities are being worked out, sources told PTI.

The bank is being set up at the Delhi government-run Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) and doctors or hospitals will have to approach it if a plasma is required for treatment of a COVID-19 patient.

Addressing an online media briefing on Monday, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had said the bank will be operational in the next two days.

The move comes as convalescent plasma therapy has shown "encouraging" results in city hospitals, he had said.

Sources said the facility where the plasma will be drawn from one person to donate to a COVID-19 patient, is being set up on the serving floor of the ILBS.

The plasma itself can be stored in the blood bank facility in a separate pack, a source said.

According to experts, plasma needs cryogenic storage at minus 80 degrees Celsius or less.

Bharat Biotech gets nod to conduct trials for vaccine

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted permission to Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) to conduct Phase I and II Human clinical trials to develop an indigenous vaccine for COVID-19 — in the name COVAXIN.

For this, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and BBIL had partnered to develop a fully indigenous vaccine for COVID-19 using the virus strain isolated at ICMR's National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune.

"The Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) — the office of DCGI has granted permission to initiate Phase I and II Human clinical trials after the company submitted results generated from preclinical studies, demonstrating safety and immune response. Human clinical trials are scheduled to start across India in July 2020," stated the spokesperson of Bharat Biotech.

"The strain was successfully transferred from NIV to Bharat Biotech International Ltd. (BBIL). Work on vaccine development has been initiated between the two partners. ICMR-NIV are providing continuous support to BBIL for vaccine development. ICMR and BBIL will seek fast-track approvals to expedite vaccine development, subsequent animal studies and clinical evaluation of the candidate vaccine," said ICMR official.

With inputs from agencies

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chiefpundit-blog · 5 years

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josidel · 7 years

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Kept telling myself not to let go, says tenant who rescued maid from ledge

When she got hold of the arms of a maid from Myanmar dangling from the fifth floor of a Housing Board block in Bukit Panjang, Jane was certain about one thing: She was not going to let go.

The 24-year-old maid had locked herself by mistake in a room in a fifth-floor flat on Wednesday at about 8am. She tried to get out of the room by first crawling out of a window, and then using the ledge to find a way back into the flat.

Wanting to be identified only as Jane, the secretary, who rents a room in the same unit, was alerted to the maid's predicament earlier by a neighbour.

"I held on to her with all my might. She was bigger than me, but I kept telling myself not to let go," Jane said yesterday. She held on to the dangling maid for about 20 seconds before police and a neighbour helped pull her over the railings.

The rescue took about a minute but Jane, 35, said: "The image of the maid crying as I held onto her, I can't forget that. It was scary for her, but it was also traumatising for me."

The incident was captured on video by Madam Anita Sahari, 50, who was in her kitchen preparing lunch when she saw the maid.

"Even as I was recording the video, my hands were shaking," said the housewife.

In the video that went viral online, the barefooted maid is seen walking the length of the ledge while holding on to the wall and window grilles for support, and approaching Jane in the corridor.

Jane was alerted to the drama by a neighbour banging away on the front door.

Domestic worker balancing on HDB ledge

The neighbour yelled, "Your maid is on the ledge", said Jane. "That was when I looked up and saw a hand outside the window."

She rushed to the window and tried to open the grilles, but they were locked.

Jane, who had been renting the room for about five months, said: "For a moment, she disappeared from my view and I thought she had fallen. So I ran out of the flat to check if I could see her from the corridor, and thankfully she was still there. She can't really speak English, so I was trying to signal to her to stop moving."

She added: "I normally leave home before 8am for work, so perhaps it was fate I woke up late that day."

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said no one was taken to the hospital.

The maid's employer, who wanted to be known only as Mr Raj, 54, an army regular, told The Straits Times he received a call after the incident, while he was on his way to work.

The maid had been with the family for about a month, but had worked for another employer for about seven months before that, he said.

"Fortunately, the tenant was home. If not, I wouldn't know how to answer to the maid's family," said Mr Raj, adding that the maid had a poor grasp of English and normally conversed with the family in Tamil.

He sent her back to the agency on Thursday morning, and he was told she returned to Myanmar the same day.

Mr Raj said the doorknob of the particular room the maid was locked in had been faulty for a while. "I have reminded her about it before. I don't know why she decided to endanger her own life. But luckily nobody got hurt."

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indianmaidagency · 2 days

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wionews · 7 years

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My home, My maid's prison: The state of domestic workers in India

The number of female domestic workers in cities across India has been increasing rapidly since 1999. Yet, domestic workers occupy little or no place in most of the contemporary discourse on economic development. Domestic workers do not have the required collectivities or associations or popular spokespersons to voice their concerns. This is not to claim that domestic workers as a category is completely ignored in public discourse. It does figure in academic circles sporadically as a growing category of female employment, and their reference in intervention programmes is largely limited to their status as migrant workers. However, they are largely absent from state policy – be it labour laws or social policy.

In Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan domestic work is now included under the minimum wages notification.

Thanks to collective struggles, some interventions have come through in a few states. In Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan domestic work is now included under the minimum wages notification. In Tamil Nadu, domestic work is added to the scheduled list under the Manual Workers Act (Regulation and Employment and Conditions of Work Act), 1982. However, even in Karnataka, which is the first state to fix minimum wages for domestic workers and has a strong organisational backing of domestic workers, the legislative benefits are yet to reach a large chunk of workers. The politics at work is evident in its removal from the scheduled list in 1993 (after a year of its inclusion) till 2004, when it finally reappeared in the schedule. Apart from these sporadic interventions, national level interventions are yet to begin in this sector.

Size, Growth and Characteristics

The importance of the sector in our economy can be gauged from a careful analysis of its size and growth. Private households with employed persons who are largely domestic workers are next to only education in terms of the share in female employment in the service sector. The percentage of domestic workers in total female employment in the service sector increased from 11.8 per cent in 1999-2000 to 27.1 per cent in 2004-05, with a phenomenal increase in the number of workers by about 2.25 million in a short span of five years. The data shows a feminisation of the service with the share of female workers increasing sharply over the period.

The increased demand for domestic workers has also been related to the reduction in provision of public social services, which has forced families to depend on market oriented care services to cope with childcare and other domestic duties, especially when women members are employed outside the home.

Domestic work in itself has undergone tremendous changes. Domestic workers used to be attached to one single household and undertook one or more work such as cleaning or cooking. In the modern system of domestic work, this has changed and a large number of workers undertake heterogeneous work in different households. Thus a domestic worker may do cooking in one house and only cleaning work in another. This system of “part time domestic work” is typically associated with the phenomenon of urbanisation and the emergence of modern nuclear middle class families. The social value of the labour of the domestic servants has assumed a different orientation, with a large number of women seeking job outside the home; and the comparatively limited capacity of large sections of the middle class to employ and patronise full-time domestics. The increased demand for domestic workers has also been related to the reduction in provision of public social services, which has forced families to depend on market oriented care services to cope with childcare and other domestic duties, especially when women members are employed outside the home.

The patterns of urbanisation in urban centres have ensured the existence of pockets of urban slums that service the surrounding middle and upper class areas in a variety of ways, and domestic service is one of the most important provisions thus rendered. Interstate migrant women account for a majority of the domestic workers. Growing demand for domestic workers has also resulted in a regular flow of domestic helps from particular pockets of out-migration areas. With the increase in the number of workers and the demand for domestics the occupation has got segregated into a number of differentiated tasks. The preference for domestic work among poor women is documented in many studies. Poor women find it convenient to be employed as domestic labour in the surrounding residential areas. Since it is convenient for them to shoulder their own double burden if work is in the close vicinity, and especially if it permits them a few hours at home in between the shifts. Although it is definitely not unskilled work, there are fewer barriers to entry, and many of them perceive it as an extension of work done in one’s own home, although in a different socio-cultural situation.

Though the sector occupies a central role in women’s employment, there is no uniformity in the level of wages, hours of work, number of working days, nature of payment and other conditions of work. Domestic work occurs in isolated, largely non-regulated and privatised environment and most domestic workers negotiate job terms and pay on an individual basis. The pay of the domestic workers is often determined by the task performed, the locality, their social status and other labour market conditions. Studies have shown that there is clearly a hierarchy among domestic workers in terms of type of work done that is reflected in the wage structure. Total emoluments for cleaning work in urban areas ranges from Rs 100 to Rs 400 per month for tasks such as washing clothes, cleaning utensils, sweeping and cleaning floors. On the other hand, childcare fetches monthly wages in the range of Rs 500- 1,000, and cooking is the best paid in the range of Rs 500-1,500 per month. Further, the number of members in the employer family (for washing clothes, utensils and cooking) and the area of the dwelling (sweeping, mopping, etc) also affect the wage rate.

The conditions of work and lower socioeconomic status of these workers gives sufficient pointers to the possibility of physical and sexual violence, which is largely under-reported

The working hours of domestic workers also vary. Research on domestic workers suggests that many workers suffer from occupational health problems especially backaches, joint pains and allergies to detergents and other cleaning agents However, there is no provision for social security in terms of provident fund, health insurance or pension. The conditions of work and lower socioeconomic status of these workers gives sufficient pointers to the possibility of physical and sexual violence, which is largely under-reported.

Commercialisation of Domestic Work

Domestic service is still a highly personalised service. However, the market possibilities of the sector have affected the organisation of the service drastically, posing further challenges in the regulation of this sector. The huge amount of commission involved and the absence of any regulation are the major attractions. During the past few years there has been an upsurge in the number of agencies supplying domestic workers especially in metropolitan cities. As per broad estimates, there are over 800-1,000 placement agencies in the capital city of Delhi itself.

Since agencies differ considerably in terms of functioning, doubts are often raised about the genuineness and method of functioning of these organisations. The tribal pockets (of the states of Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Orissa) are often the hubs of such recruitment from where large number of women (especially unmarried girls) are mobilised. Single women migrants depend on these agencies, as they are unaware of the dispersed employment opportunities in the city. The linguistic barrier of the migrant is another factor, which makes the role of a middleman or agency inevitable. The existence of various layers of recruitment agents and the system of advance payments adds to the complexity. It is widely documented that a large number of agencies take undue advantage of the illiteracy and ignorance of these workers and non-payment of wages and the element of forced/bonded labour are also rampant. Trafficking for domestic work and the possibility of sexual exploitation of domestics (by the middlemen, agents and employers) are among the concerns often raised in this context. Thus, in reality, there are regular traumatic incidences in which domestic workers are exploited in the cities by agencies as well as employers – a trend that is sure to increase in the future unless appropriate policy interventions take place soon.

Need for Regulation

Lakhs of women and girls turn to domestic work as one of the few options available to them in order to provide for themselves and their families. This definitely poses serious concerns in terms of women’s work and the larger issue of women’s agency and empowerment. The relocation of work from public to domestic, which are governed by personalised service conditions and are often oppressive, pose serious challenges. The domestic worker has an ambiguous status, and remains “a special type of worker who is neither the member of the family, nor an employee in the public sphere enjoying the full advantages of socialised work.

Domestic work poses challenges in terms of regulation in the context of its fragmented nature, different tasks and a multiplicity of employers. The emergence of middlemen and agents further complicates the scenario. Notwithstanding this, instead of guaranteeing better employment conditions, governments have systematically denied them key labour protections extended to other workers. Given a history of neglect of issues of women workers in general it is not surprising that domestic workers have been excluded from even a basic labour law like the Minimum Wages Act. The first attempt to regularise domestic work, i e, the drafting of the Domestic Workers’ Bill (Conditions of Service) 1959 is now a matter of history. Along with efforts to include domestic workers in the pending Unorganised Sector Workers’ Bill (2004) there are also demands for a separate bill, which would address the special employment conditions of this category of work. In this context, the bill framed by the National Commission for Women deserves special mention.

The present bill, though it takes into account many of the specificities of domestic work, needs to be developed further especially on the implementation aspects. This calls for extensive consultations and discussions with various stakeholders across the country.

The process was initiated following a growing number of media reports on the exploitation of tribal girls by placement agencies and employers in Delhi. The Commission held a series of discussions with various stakeholders and came out with a draft bill, the Domestic Workers (Registration of Social Security and Welfare) Act 2008, the details of which are on its web site. Apart from regulating placement agencies the bill also stipulates conditions of work and also addresses the social security concerns of domestic workers. The present bill, though it takes into account many of the specificities of domestic work, needs to be developed further especially on the implementation aspects. This calls for extensive consultations and discussions with various stakeholders across the country. If enacted it would surely improve the conditions of millions of domestic workers. Whether this bill becomes just an addition to the numerous bills that various commissions have drafted and which have not seen the light of the day is a matter of real concern.

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westrama-maid-agency · 4 years

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Tamil maid agency in Singapore

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housemaidagency · 5 years

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okaylah02-blog · 6 years

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thesoapbar-blog1 · 7 years

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Bodies-Cities-Homes-Metro

This is an excerpt from my Master’s Dissertation Thesis, 2017.

Servicing Safety at Your Doorstep

The most striking feature of my observations was the way the home was constituted and how working women relate to it. In several ways, women are redefining what a home means - it is no longer a shelter for the depoliticized, private family (of the middle classes) but has opened up to several possibilities of sociality between the different kinds of women living in it. One of my respondents, Parvati Patil, coming from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu lives with four other women in a luxurious apartment located in the complex of Cyber Hub, Gurgaon. One of the compulsory events in the house is for everyone to have dinner together at the dining table, “like a family”. This includes five working women, their full-time maid and their pet dog, Caramel. Another respondent, Mehek, when asked which her bedroom was replied that she does not have a bed assigned; she and the two other women take turns sleeping in any of the three beds in two rooms. A sense of community is forged between the inhabitants of the house who did not know each other before sharing the intimate space of the home. Thus, the social community of flatmate-ship is forged by economies of rent - unknown women come to live with each other in the same space out of the need to find suitable housing with the purchasing power of their wage and social status. This purchasing power comes from having had a secondary education which acts as a stepping stone to employment. For women in the current project, all of whom have received a higher secondary education, values pertaining to financial independence, lifestyle choices and mate selection were deeply influenced by the education they received. Parvati Patil, whose childhood career fantasies involved becoming an actress or an air hostess is now an environmental consultant. Always inclined towards doing something for the environment she wanted to study and work in a field that, according to her, brings about change in some way. She went on to study Environmental Engineering at the undergraduate and postgraduate level in the UK before landing a high paying job for an international environment auditing company in Delhi. She met a man in her university, now working as a Graphic Designer in Sri Lanka, whom she fell in love with and the two are now committed to marry each other eventually.

Her workload keeps her extremely busy and she barely has time to have a social life. “Sometimes when things get really hard with work I want to be a housewife to a really rich person but that’s just a fantasy.” Her choice of career reflects her opinions of which professions are altruistic, which are glamorous and not having a profession means being able to live a comfortable, luxurious life from a rich husband, even if only as a fantasy. Even so, she often does not have much to say when her flatmates are having heated conversations about technology, their corporate work and interests. The five flatmates have a system of housework duties that each one performs. Parvati is in charge of paying the rent while her friend does the grocery shopping. Living as friends who split the labour of paying bills, buying groceries and having dinner together like a family, these women mark a turn in the working life of Delhi, and more specifically Gurgaon. Every week on a Friday night, they make it a point to have dinner together and a wine party, in a way re-creating the upper middle class family that they come from. What sets it apart, however, is the sociality between single working women. “We walk in on each other naked sometimes; if someone has a boyfriend over or a party then two or three of us sleep in my bedroom or the maid sleeps in one of our rooms.” On the day she moved in, they had a wine party to celebrate her moving in. Interestingly they get their alcohol delivered to the doorstep because it is unsafe to venture out in the dark in a city where there are no streetlights on the main road. She lives in an apartment complex in the middle of Cyber Hub, walking past expensive restaurants and pubs on her way to work. The line of apartment complexes in this area forms a miniature skyline of Gurgaon marking the corporate lifestyle of the city. Like Parvati, people who live here work in the nearby retail brands which have their glass window offices all over Gurgaon. While Parvati walks to work, one of her flatmates drives a car and some others travel by auto during the day and by cab at night.

Public safety, or rather safety of women is a concern taken into account by the developers in the city. Posh housing complexes and the rapid metro are architectural manifestations of the safety that the city is constructed in. This concern for safety extends to the services provided for residents, the consumers. Door to door services are not just limited to alcohol but also to beauty parlour services, a dog walker and of course, cab services. Thus, Parvati’s ethnograph suggests that safety comes at a high-cost, that is almost equivalent to comfort and luxury and corporeal landscape of Gurgaon is reflective of this proliferation of a neo-liberal economy. The popular perception of Gurgaon is that it is an unsafe city for women, implying that middle and upper class women need safety from potential threat of sexual violation.

“I’m the youngest in my office so they kinda baby me. It’s usually cute and sweet but sometimes it gets too much. More than one day in a week I have to work till 9-9 30 and my boss always insists that he’ll walk me home because it’s late. 9 30 is not late for me!”

However, the extent to which services are provided at the doorstep sometimes have little to do with safety and a lot more to do with a luxurious lifestyle. Services like online delivery of groceries, the beauty parlour lady coming home for women in the complex and a community dog walker are all instances of high end hospitality.

“Most of the grocery shopping is done online, through the app GrocerMax. One of my friend buys fruits from a mandi near her family home in Delhi or Panipat but that’s once a month. For everything else we order online from GrocerMax. For emergency milk and curd there’s a shop downstairs in the society which has everything but it’s more expensive because it’s inside the complex.”

Online applications like GrocerMax, Grofers and Big Basket deliver groceries to the doorstep all around Delhi too. What I find striking in this encounter is that the store within the apartment complex is more expensive than ordering online. In my own experience, the prices of fruits and vegetables on Big Basket are more expensive than buying them from a local market in say, Azadpur or Model Town. That Parvati chooses online shopping because it is cheaper speaks of a certain relative class comfort. To illustrate further, Splitwise is a mobile application that allows you to split costs while purchasing goods and services in a group. Most women living in independent housing use it to split costs with flatmates. This is one of the reasons why Parvati finds it comfortable to live with other working women,

“The thing about having flatmates is I can owe up to 8 grand to someone at the end of the month and they’ll say it’s okay, pay me back at the end of the month. Even if you can’t afford food your friends can so having flatmates is good.”

While it is perhaps a comfortable living arrangement, what I want to compare here is that my own Splitwise balance never exceeds more than 500-600 rupees. Being able to casually accept late payment of a sum that is not very modest is indicative of an upper middle class lifestyle. Thus, receiving services to the doorstep may not always be related to safety which was the initial reason for extending services.

By causally relating this perception to the reach of services up to the consumer’s doorstep, the stark contrast between the gated communities of Gurgaon’s apartments and the lack of mobility on the streets except in private cars is constitutive of the luxurious lifestyle of corporate working. These gated communities have more than 15-20 floors, are equipped with amenities like gym, centralized air conditioning, club house, parks, sports and playing areas and high level security. In the 3-4 km radius around Cyber Hub, I could not see an independent house or a small apartment building. When I entered the apartment complex with Parvati, I was almost not surprised to see her swipe a card for unlocking the gate. It is for the same reasons of secure living that she had to clear an interview by her now flatmates to get an apartment room of her choice in the prime location of Cyber Hub. It’s close vicinity to major corporate companies like Deloitte, Zomato, Google, Citibank, Pepsi and several other retail brands coupled with the electronic security mentioned above makes it a desirable yet difficult to attain apartment. In this manner, mere purchasing power was inadequate to buy the room that ensured security and pampered her tastes. It was important for her to be living a similar lifestyle so as to be able to dwell in a house suitable to her.

Transporting Safety

In the metropolitan capital city of Delhi, transport plays a major role in transforming its demographic. There is a characteristic arrangement of universities in the north and south campuses, news agencies and government offices in central Delhi and concentration of corporate brand offices in Gurgaon. The Delhi metro is as instrumental in the distribution of the working population as the location of offices and workplaces. It not only connects important residential colonies with work areas but is also strategically constructed to ensure women’s safety in areas that were hitherto less populated and perceived to be unsafe at night. Here, I want to focus on two phases of the metro rail operations. One of the earliest routes to operate was the yellow line between Kashmere Gate and Vishwavidyala in 2004, right after the red line between Tiz Hazari and Shahdara. Immediately after, the yellow line was extended up to Rajiv Chowk (Connaught Place). This connected areas near Old Delhi such as Chandni Chowk, Kashmere Gate, Jama Masjid and their surrounded markets with the colleges of Delhi University and, more importantly, the erstwhile Vidhan Sabha or the state legislative assemblies in North Delhi. Thus, the first phase of operations of the Delhi metro were constructed keeping in mind that Delhi is a seat of governance of the country. Interestingly, one of my respondents, Nala, is of the perception that the first line to operate was the yellow line between Central Secretariat and Vishwavidyala.

“Shridharan and Sheila Dikshit deserve credit irrespective of their political views now because the first metro line connected Old Delhi, North Campus and South Delhi. Even though South seems more the presentable, professional life of Delhi, this line ensured that girls from south could go to North campus colleges safely.”

What she means is that several colleges in South Delhi like Lady Shri Ram, Gargi College and Kamla Nehru College came up in the middle class neighbourhoods of South Delhi where presumably upper caste Hindu families could send their daughters for higher education close to home and therefore, they would be safe. While it might be true that the metro is a significant social paradigm that disciplines the population of Delhi strategically, the perceived safety of women has little to do with the transport system. Nala, who has lived in Delhi since 2005, first as a student and then as a university professor is convinced that the metro made it possible for young girls from South Delhi families to be able to receive quality education. In this manner, mobility through the city with its planned routes of movement, is a way of performing upper class (and upper caste) femininity that revolves around the idea of safety (presumably from lower class men).

It is not until 2010, 8 years later, that we see a deliberate attempt to connect the upper class working areas - the yellow line extends from Rajiv Chowk till HUDA City Center and the Violet line emerges connecting Badarpur at the Delhi-Haryana border. It is, in fact, now that the working population of South Delhi is connected to the central and northern parts of the city. Further, Nala observed that the Violet line is constructed in a way to bring the lower class working populations from the outskirts of the Delhi-NCR regions to the hospitals, offices and residential colonies of South Delhi:

“Why is the Violet line so sucky? Because it is really the service line. It brings lower class women work force from the depths of Haryana to the posher, workable areas of the first few metro stations on Violet line.”

What she means by sucky here is that the trains on the Violet line are extremely crowded and less frequent than the other lines. Domestic workers, nurses, receptionists commute daily to work in the posh bungalows and hospitals near Lajpat Nagar, Moolchand, Sarita Vihar and Jangpura. This was further confirmed by another respondent, Kashish who works as a junior resident doctor at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in Sarita Vihar. Several nursing hostels are located nearby. Kashish lives in a room set accommodation in a colony in Sarita Vihar and travels either by the metro or in an auto to work. She only sits in the women’s compartment when unaccompanied, and especially at night.

An important feature of the Delhi metro is that it is a significant social tool in connecting the capital city of Delhi with the surrounding cities of Gurgaon, Faridabad and Noida to compose the Delhi-NCR region. Although Gurgaon and Noida are located in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh respectively, their proximity to and shared working culture with Delhi blur their political boundaries. The NCR mapping is quite central to the development of residences in these areas. The Rapid Metro runs in a loop from Sikanderpur and back in order to transport working populations within Gurgaon. In fact, several metro stations in this area are funded by private companies - Vodafone Belvedere Towers (Rapid Metro), Indigo Guru Dronacharya (DMRC), Cyber City (Rapid Metro), HTC HUDA City Center (DMRC) and Bank of Baroda Sikanderpur (DMRC). There is an implicit connection between safety, comfort/luxury, work and transport that the Rapid Metro makes. It begins and terminates at a point where it connects with the DMRC; its interiors include an electronic display machine, more comfortable seats and much more space than the Delhi Metro and its stations are all brand offices of high end companies. Although the distances between consecutive stations on the Rapid Metro are not half as much as the distances between stations on the Delhi Metro, huge investments have been made to construct and operate it to ensure safety. The Rapid Metro plays an instrumental role in constituting the upper class lifestyle of Gurgaon, enmeshing within its networking strategy the safety of its passengers, especially women. Parvati, in fact, rarely travels by the metro within Gurgaon because it does not connect places of leisure, such as the Sector-29 complex, to her home/office.

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brajeshupadhyay · 4 years

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If the area of residence of maid or house-helps has been declared as containment zone or large outbreak region then their entry is not to be permitted by RWA: Municipal Corporation of Gurugram Haryana: Municipal Corporation of Gurugram issues guidelines for resident welfare associations,to be followed till 31st July during #Unlock2. Entry of maids/house-helps be allowed with restrictions, including mandatory use of face-mask,thermal scanning&hand sanitisation at gate pic.twitter.com/IvxhSBMtSN — ANI (@ANI) July 1, 2020 08:03 (IST) Coronavirus Outbreak Latest Updates Security Council trying again for first COVID-19 resolution The UN Security Council is trying again to reach agreement on its first resolution on COVID-19 since the coronavirus started circling the global in February, after a lengthy dispute between the US and China over mentioning the World Health Organization, reports AP. A revised draft resolution by France and China was submitted for a vote on Tuesday and the result is expected to be announced on Wednesday. 07:51 (IST) Coronavirus Outbreak in India Latest Updates Unlock 2.0 begins today On 29 June, the Centre had announced guidelines for ‘Unlock 2.0’, the second phase of reopening of economic and other activities in the country. These will be applicable from today. Night curfew timings are being further relaxed and curfew shall be in force from 10.00 pm to 5.00 am. While schools and colleges will continue to remain closed, there have been further restrictions regarding hotels and restaurants. 07:43 (IST) Coronavirus Outbreak Latest Updates Global COVID-19 cases now at 1.03 crore Total confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the world stand at 1.03 crore, according to the Johns Hopkins University CSSE. This figure includes COVID-19 patients who have recovered and the overall global death toll which stands at 5.06 lakh. 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Modi announces extension of free ration scheme Stating the cost to the exchequer in extending the PMGKAY scheme, the prime minister said that over Rs 90,000 crore will be spent on the scheme, and if the last three months' expenditure on account of the free ration scheme is added, then the total budget will be about Rs 1.5 lakh crore. The scheme was rolled out for three months from April soon after the nationwide lockdown was announced to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Noting that July marks the beginning of the festive season when people's needs as well as expenditure increase, Modi said that the government has decided to extend the scheme till November end. The prime minister also said in his 16-minute address that the Central Government is working on the "one nation, one ration card" initiative which, he added, will benefit people living outside their home for employment and other needs the most. This was Modi's sixth address to the nation after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic The prime minister said that each member of a family covered under the scheme will get five kilogrammes of wheat or rice, and every family will get one kilogramme whole gram per month as well. Modi, however, lamented that there is an increasing "negligence" in personal and social behaviour during the easing of restrictions and urged people to be more vigilant. "We have also seen that since 'Unlock-1', there is increasing negligence in personal and social behaviour. Earlier, we were very careful with respect to wearing of masks, social distancing and washing of hands for 20 seconds. But today, when we need to be more careful, increasing negligence is a cause of worry," he said and urged the people to follow all necessary precautions. He also emphasised on strict enforcement of rules, especially in containment zones. "Those not following the rules will need to be stopped and cautioned," he said, stressing "be it a village pradhan or the prime minister, no one is above the law in India". Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu record most cases Maharashtra remained the highest contributor to the single day rise in cases, registering over 5,200 coronavirus infections, according to the Union Health Ministry. Recording nearly 4,000 cases in the last 24 hours, Tamil Nadu has again surpassed Delhi to regain the second spot among the list of worst-hit states by the pandemic. Karnataka also recorded more than 1,100 cases overtaking Haryana and Andhra Pradesh. Delhi saw an increase of 2,084 cases in the past 24 hours. In June, the national capital added over 64,000 fresh cases to its tally, while over 47,357 patients recovered, were discharged or migrated. The total number of COVID-19 cases has gone up to 15,394 in Telangana, 14,295 in Karnataka, 14,210 in Haryana, 13,891 in Andhra Pradesh, and 13,370 in Madhya Pradesh. 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According to experts, plasma needs cryogenic storage at minus 80 degrees Celsius or less. Bharat Biotech gets nod to conduct trials for vaccine The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) has granted permission to Bharat Biotech International Limited (BBIL) to conduct Phase I and II Human clinical trials to develop an indigenous vaccine for COVID-19 — in the name COVAXIN. For this, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and BBIL had partnered to develop a fully indigenous vaccine for COVID-19 using the virus strain isolated at ICMR's National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune. "The Central Drug Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) — the office of DCGI has granted permission to initiate Phase I and II Human clinical trials after the company submitted results generated from preclinical studies, demonstrating safety and immune response. Human clinical trials are scheduled to start across India in July 2020," stated the spokesperson of Bharat Biotech. "The strain was successfully transferred from NIV to Bharat Biotech International Ltd. (BBIL). Work on vaccine development has been initiated between the two partners. ICMR-NIV are providing continuous support to BBIL for vaccine development. ICMR and BBIL will seek fast-track approvals to expedite vaccine development, subsequent animal studies and clinical evaluation of the candidate vaccine," said ICMR official. With inputs from agencies

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