It’s an ancient disease that has been mentioned in history across the world, but one that is now largely forgotten. Leprosy however, continues to exist in India. As per data, in 2020-21, the country saw 65, 147 new cases of leprosy, down from 1,14,451 cases in 2019-20 -- but whether this data is a reflection of ground reality is not known, as the Covid-19 pandemic hampered detection of cases, patients were unable to access healthcare services due to the lockdowns and almost all public health efforts were directed towards combating the pandemic. The disease, caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium leprae, primarily affects the skin and the nerves under the skin. It causes lesions, and if left untreated, leads to deformities and disabilities. Despite free treatment available across the country in the government health sector, leprosy continues to be stigmatised and patients discriminated against, often in their own homes and communities. In 2005, India officially eliminated leprosy as a public health problem -- as less than 1 in 10,000 people contracted it in a year. But some States in the country continue to have higher rates -- parts of Bihar, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal and a few others make up a sizeable chunk of all cases in the country. So what happened to leprosy services in India after 2005? And what happened during the pandemic? Why does India still account for a significant proportion of the world’s leprosy cases? Guest: Dr. Joydeepa Darlong Head, Knowledge Management, The Leprosy Mission Trust India Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

In Focus by The Hindu

Did detection of leprosy fall during the pandemic? | In Focus

The Delhi High Court, after hearing a case filed by table tennis star Manika Batra, has suspended the Table Tennis Federation of India (TTFI). It has appointed a three-member Committee of Administrators (CoA) to run the sport for the time being. In the absence of a regular federation to administer the sport, players face an uncertain future. The High Court order has also put the spotlight on the mismanagement that seems to plague many of our sports federations. So, why did the TTFI get suspended? And what is the likely effect of the High Court order on other sports federations? Guest: Rakesh Rao, Deputy Editor (Sports), The Hindu Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Decoding the suspension of the Table Tennis Federation of India | In Focus

With the dust yet to settle on the whole debate around the Aadhaar project, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeITY) has now proposed a new model of ‘Federated Digital Identities’. The idea is to link a citizen’s multiple unique IDs such as PAN, driving licence, passport and so on to one unique ID. This proposal is part of several digital governance initiatives that the government is considering under the India Digital Ecosystem Architecture or InDEA 2.0 framework. Why exactly do we need federated digital identities? What is the InDEA 2.0 framework all about? Does our digital governance architecture imbibe the constitutional principles that govern traditional governance? Are there any privacy or surveillance concerns that ordinary citizens need to worry about? We look for some answers to these questions in this episode. Guest: Srinivas Kodali, inter-disciplinary researcher with special interest in data standards, cities, cyber security, and the internet. Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Decoding MeITY’s proposal for ‘Federated Digital Identities’ | In Focus

Cricket’s Indian Premier League, known popularly as IPL, is valued at a staggering 50,000 crore rupees. In 2008, when the IPL was launched, not many would have thought it would not only be a mega commercial success but become a magnet for international players. Another round of player auctions has just been concluded with a top sale tag of over 15 crores for an individual cricketer. So, what makes the IPL tick and tick loudly? Guest: Joy Bhattacharjya, CEO of Prime Volleyball League and former Team Director of Kolkata Knight Riders. He is also an analyst for cricbuzz.com. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

What drives the business of IPL auctions? | In Focus

In February 2019, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court, challenging Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act, 1955. This section, which deals with ‘restitution of conjugal rights’, essentially forces a wife who has left her husband, to return and cohabit with him. Although it is gender neutral (applying to either spouse), it is back in focus partly owing to the growing spotlight on criminalising marital rape. The petition challenging this law, titled Ojaswa Pathak vs Union of India, was last heard on July 8, 2021 and has been pending since then, with the Supreme Court website showing no further dates. Justice Rohinton Nariman, who led the Bench which heard the case, has also retired. Meanwhile, adding another twist to the discourse around sexual autonomy of the married woman in India, the Centre has conveyed to the Delhi High Court that India should not “blindly” follow the West in criminalizing marital rape. With the petition against Section 9 pending in the Supreme Court for so many months without a hearing, there is a growing clamour for an early resumption of hearings. What exactly do the provisions of Section 9 say? What has been their impact so far, and how did we end up with such a law in the first place? Guest: Arti Raghavan, practicing advocate at the Bombay High Court Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Why do we need a law for ‘restitution of conjugal rights’? | In Focus

On February 1, when the Union Budget 2022 was unveiled, there was much hope and expectation for the health sector. 2022 continues to be a pandemic year, with the third wave of COVID-19 hitting the country, and the government has made a commitment to increasing the allocation for health to 2.5% of the GDP by 2025.  However, the Budget speech by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not give the sector much cause for cheer. Though the overall allocation for health went up by about 16%, from Rs. 73,931 crore last year to Rs. 86,200 crore this year, the Centre actually ended up spending Rs. 82,920 crore last year, making the actual allocation for this year only about 0.2 % higher.  The Finance Minister did announce two big schemes -- an open platform for a national digital health eco-system with a registry of all health providers and a unique health identity for all, as well as a National Tele-Mental Health Programme. Digital health has gained ground in the country, especially during the last two years when most parts of the country were under various lockdowns. The push to boost mental health, which has for too long not received the attention it needs in the country, has been welcomed. But what happens to primary health care in urban and rural areas, the need for which was badly felt during the devastating second wave of the pandemic last year? And how many can still afford quality healthcare in the country -- how has the national health insurance scheme worked, and what is its budgetary allocation? And has enough money been allocated to sanitation and hygiene, pollution mitigation and nutrition -- all of which are crucial to improving health indicators? Guest: Avani Kapur, Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research and Lead Accountability Initiative Host: Zubeda Hamid  Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Does the Budget's health allocation do enough? | In Focus

The anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International (TI) has released the 2021 Corruption Perception Index, or CPI. This Index ranks 180 countries on their perceived levels of corruption in the public sector. Countries are evaluated on a scale from 0 to 100, where 100 is very clean and 0 is very corrupt. This latest CPI has revealed that globally, corruption remains at high levels, with the average score at 43 out of 100. Out of the 180 countries, 131 have made no progress against corruption, two-thirds scored below 50, indicating that corruption is a major problem, while 27 slipped to their lowest score ever. Although India’s rank improved from 86th to 85, its score of 40 is lower than the global average of 43, which seems to indicate that corruption in India is higher than in most other countries. The report also states that rising corruption is an enabler of human rights abuse and authoritarianism. For a better understanding of CPI, global trends in corruption, and what the report has to say about India, we speak to Venkatesh Nayak. Guest: Venkatesh Nayak, development sector veteran who has worked on transparency and public audit mechanisms, and is currently with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI). Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Do rising levels of corruption enable authoritarianism? | In Focus

Last week, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights told the Supreme Court that close to 1.5 lakh children in the country are in need of care and protection after losing at least one of their parents to COVID-19 and other diseases during the pandemic period, while over 10,000 children have lost both parents. The pandemic and subsequent lockdowns not only pushed thousands of Indians into poverty, it also made services that generally safeguard children, unavailable in large parts of the country, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation. Thousands of migrant workers returned to their villages, schools have been shut for the better part of two years, and families, desperate to survive, have gotten into the clutches of money-lenders, which makes them easy prey for traffickers. In July last year, the Union Home Ministry issued guidelines for the urgent setting up of Anti Human Trafficking Units or AHTUs, and asked States to upgrade the infrastructure of existing ones. As per the National Crime Records Bureau, there are 696 functional AHTUs and 20 States/Union Territories have achieved their target of setting up AHTUs in all districts. In the meantime, children have been rescued from trains and buses, from workplaces across the country, from sexual exploitation and child marriage in the thousands by child rights organisations. Childline, a helpline for children in distress, received 1,92,000 distress calls between March and August 2020, most to do with cases of child labour. And yet NCRB's data from AHTUs recorded only 1,714 cases of human trafficking in 2020. What really happened to vulnerable children during the pandemic? How do the AHTUs work and are they effective? What happens to rescued children and how long does it take for the rehabilitation process to work? And what are the urgent gaps the government needs to fill to protect children in our country from being trafficked? Guest: Dhananjay Tingal, executive director, Bachpan Bachao Andolan, a movement for the protection of children that works with government agencies and policy-makers to strengthen the system Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Reenu Cyriac

What really happened to vulnerable children during the pandemic | In Focus

With elections coming up in five states, it was expected that the Union Budget for the financial year 2022-23 would focus on addressing the crisis of unemployment. One of the things that Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman needed to do in this regard was to increase government spending, and she appears to have done so, increasing the capital expenditure outlay by 35.4%, But will this be enough to draw in adequate amounts of private investment and ensure job creation on a massive scale? Also, how do we understand the logic behind the cuts in subsidies, with fertilizer, food and petroleum subsidies all witnessing a marked decline? While job creation remains a primary concern, the allocation for MGNREGA – which saw a surge in demand during the pandemic – has not been increased. How do we assess the Budget on the welfare front – in the domains of health, education and farmer welfare? In this podcast, we look to unpack the numbers of the Union Budget and get to the core of what it means for the common man. Guest: Arun Kumar, economist and  Malcolm S. Adiseshiah Chair Professor at the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Union Budget 2022: What does the budget offer the common man?

The National Commission for Women has said it had seen a 30% rise in complaints of crimes against women in 2021, compared to 2020. Nearly 31,000 complaints of crimes against women were received by the Commission for last year, the highest since 2014. Of these, over 6,000 were related to domestic violence and over 4,000 were to do with dowry harassment. In 2020 also, the Commission had received a record high number of complaints, one quarter of them related to domestic violence -- in just April and May of that year, during the nation-wide lockdown, 47.2% of the cases it received were of domestic violence, by comparison, barely 21% of cases received between January and March were to do with this. Domestic violence has sometimes been referred to as the 'shadow pandemic' -- as the world faced an unprecedented crisis and lockdowns became the norm in several countries, not only did women find themselves locked in with their abusers at home, they also lost access to support services outside. The economic distress faced by millions exacerbated the problem. In India, organisations working with women have reported a huge spike in cases -- men and women lost their jobs, many members of a family were forced to stay together often in small quarters -- not only did women have more household work than usual, they also had little access to the outside, and their support systems dwindled. At the same time, many girls and young women who would ordinarily have been in school and college, have been confined to their homes -- potentially increasing their vulnerability to violence and also to the threat of cyber crimes. Did we have any mechanisms in place to help support survivors of violence through the pandemic? What legal and social structures do we need to have? What happens when fewer women use public places, and will this have an effect on women's safety in the future? And how well has the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005 been implemented? Guest: Swarna Rajagopalan, founder of Prajnya, a non-profit that works in the area of gender equality Host: Zubeda Hamid Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Domestic violence amid the pandemic | In Focus

China, the world’s factory, is worried by its dipping population growth – a figure that has fallen to its lowest level in six decades despite ending its 35-year “one child policy” in 2016 and replacing the “two child policy” with the “three child policy” last year. Just under 11 million babies were born in China in 2021 while a little over 10 million deaths were reported in the year gone by. As a result, China recorded a population growth of 0.34 per thousand – the lowest since 1960. What are the implications of this obvious population crisis? Why aren’t more children being born in China? The country’s ageing population is better educated, more skilled and healthier than before. Will the country be able to cope with lesser numbers? We discuss all these issues in this episode.  Guest: Ananth Krishnan, Hong Kong-based China correspondent of The Hindu. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

Why a dipping population growth has China worried | In Focus

If one can rank Assembly elections in order of importance, after Uttar Pradesh it has to be Punjab in the five States going to polls.  Punjab Assembly 2017 was a three-cornered contest with the Congress getting a thumping majority. Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who could not believe that AAP had lost the polls. The Akali Dal-BJP alliance came third in the 2017 race. In 2022, former Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has allied with the BJP, some victorious farmers who forced the BJP government to withdraw the three contentious agricultural laws have entered the fray, the Akalis are now in alliance with the BSP while the Congress and AAP remain serious contenders for power. Guest: Kanwar Sandhu, former Chandigarh-based Resident Editor of The Indian Express and Hindustan Times newspapers. Outgoing MLA in the Punjab Assembly, not seeking re-election. Suspended by AAP for alleged anti-party activities. Also, former Executive Editor of The Tribune newspaper. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associated Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

What's at stake in the Punjab Assembly polls? | In Focus

The poll bugle has been sounded for Uttar Pradesh’s seven-phase Assembly election between February 10 and March 7. Along with Uttar Pradesh, four other states, including Punjab, are also in election mode to elect new State Assemblies. Candidates have been announced for the first few phases in Uttar Pradesh by the BJP, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Congress and a first round of defections has also taken place. Swami Prasad Maurya, a senior minister and OBC face of the BJP, has jumped ship to the SP. As have two other Cabinet Ministers from the Yogi Adityanath government. We discuss the stakes in this all-important election in this episode. Guest: Gilles Verniers, Assistant Professor of Political Science and Co-Director, Trivedi Centre for Political Data, Ashoka University. Host: Amit Baruah, Senior Associate Editor, The Hindu Edited by Ranjani Srinivasan

What's at stake in the U.P. Assembly polls? | In Focus

According to the ‘Tek Fog’ expose by the news portal The Wire, the BJP has access to a secret app called ‘Tek Fog’ that can hijack social media, automate hate, and targets thousands of accounts with just a click. The report, when it came out, created a sensation. While A TMC MP has said Tek Fog “has serious ramifications and could jeopardise national security,” a parliamentary panel headed by a Congress leader has sought a response from the Home Ministry. So, what exactly is Tek Fog? How does automated trolling work, and is it really scalable? What does the Tek Fog expose mean in the context of investigative journalism that straddles the domains of technology, privacy, free speech and politics? We explore these questions in this episode. Guest: Samarth Bansal, an independent journalist who runs The Interval, a fortnightly newsletter Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor,  The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac

Penetrating the Tek Fog on automated trolling | In Focus

On January 17, two Indians and a Pakistani were killed in a massive explosion in Abu Dhabi. The blast is believed to have been the result of a ‘drone attack’ by Yemen’s Houthi rebels. This attack on the capital of UAE has once again drawn the spotlight to a conflict that has been going on in the region for seven years – the war in Yemen. This war, which broke out in late 2014 during a period of political instability in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring protests, has become really complicated, with multiple warring factions –the Saudi-backed coalition, the Houthis, the Southern Transitional Council, or the STC, which is another separatist group, besides other countries such as France and the UK which have been helping the Saudi-backed coalition. All of this has triggered what is believed to be the worst ongoing humanitarian crisis in the world. What are the factors driving this conflict? What is at stake for the different players? And is there any chance of peace returning to the region any time soon?  Guest: Stanly Johny, The Hindu’s International Affairs Editor Host: G. Sampath, Social Affairs Editor, The Hindu Edited by Reenu Cyriac 

Why did Yemen’s Houthi rebels launch an attack on Abu Dhabi? | In Focus

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