'National Dalit Movement for Justice (NDMJ), headquartered in New Delhi, has released a detailed report on increasing human rights violation cases against Dalits, Adivasis and other marginalized communities of India during COVID-19 lockdown. In April and May alone during the nationwide lockdown, NDMJ and SASY intervened in 67 cases of caste and gender-based violence, the nature of these cases revealing layered untouchability through socio-economic boycott and physical assault as the main cause.
'The woman booked for a social media post questioning the lack of transparency in the government’s response to the gas leak which killed 12 people in Visakhapatnam earlier this month says that she is being targeted for raising basic humanitarian concerns. In a move that is being seen as a blatant attack by the Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy government on the right to free speech, the Andhra Pradesh police registered a case against the 60-year-old resident of Guntur on May 19, calling her Facebook post ‘objectionable’...'
'In the face of the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 28 constituted a brand-new trust fund for public contributions – the Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations Fund, bearing the catchy acronym of the PM CARES Fund. On Friday, the Prime Minister’s Office refused to provide details about the Fund under the Right to Information Act, stating that PM CARES was not a “public authority” under the definition of the legislation.
'The Delhi Police’s Special Cell on Friday ‘arrested’ Pinjra Tod activist and Jawaharlal Nehru University student Natasha Narwal who was already in custody and booked her under the draconian Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The FIR under which she has been charged — 59/2020 — is the same one that has been used by the Delhi Police Special Cell against Jamia Millia Islamia students Safoora Zargar, Asif Tanha, Sharjeel Imam and other anti-CAA campaigners, all of whom are facing charges under sections 13, 16, 17 and 18 of the UAPA...'
'After being promised a higher pay, Anju Bibi (32), a domestic help, left her job at one of the houses in Noida’s Sector 50 and took up work at a house in Prateek Wisteria in Sector 77. Fifteen days later, she was fired by her new employer. “When the lockdown was implemented, I was given Rs 1,600 and told to leave. Now, no one is hiring… we do not know when we will get jobs again,” said Bibi, who used to work at four houses but was only paid her dues by two employers. Bibi lives in Sarfabad Village in Sector 75, where most of the women work as domestic helps in nearby housing societies.
' Thanks to an all-familiar power cut in the evening, it’s pitch dark in Jhandupurva village. A few torch lights from smart phones pierce through the darkness and illuminate the shape of an eight-year-old boy. Thin, frail, head tilted a little to the side, he can barely speak when asked his name. Sandip is so weak that he stutters and pauses between words. The boy has already finished dinner, his mother Vidya said. Boiled rice with milk: about half a litre of milk for the six-member family, including four children. A rice gruel with more water than milk, and salt added to taste.
'A case of sedition has been registered against a young man for allegedly making ‘objectionable remarks’ on Facebook about Uttar Pradesh chief minister Adityanath, the Indian Express reported... The FIR alleges, “Rajesh Kumar Shukla, a resident of Allahabad, had said in his Facebook post ‘I do not understand why Priyanka Gandhi Vadra did not hire Uttar Pradesh Transport Corporation buses for migrant laborers?’ On this post, a resident of Allahabad, Anoop Singh, made objectionable remarks against Yogi Adityanath. He said, “Yogi kutta hai is liye (because Yogi is a dog).”...'
'Local authorities across India filed legal notices against, questioned, or detained at least eight journalists between March 29, 2020, and May 17, 2020, amid the country’s lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus, according to CPJ interviews with the journalists and media reports. According to Om Sharma, a journalist with Hindi daily Divya Himachal in Baddi district of Himachal Pradesh, who spoke to CPJ via phone, and the New Delhi-based news website Newslaundry, since late March police have opened three criminal investigations against Sharma.
'Tansen Tiwari, a veteran journalist from Gwalior district in Madhya Pradesh, has been booked by the police for referring to Bharatiya Janata Party leaders as gappu (braggart) and tadipar (externed) in a social media post on Sunday. The Gwalior police registered the case after a local BJP leader and advocate, Awdhesh Singh Bhadauria, reported the matter to the Gola Ka Mandir police station on his party’s letterhead...'
'The Delhi Police, which on Saturday arrested two founding members of the women-led rights movement Pinjra Tod for taking part in a sit-in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act at Jafrabad in February this year, re-arrested the two after they were granted bail. This time, police claimed to have acted on an FIR that includes murder charges. Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal, both students of New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, had been at the forefront of the Pinjra Tod movement, which started as an effort to break punitive hostel curfew hours for women...'
