The poor state of the Indian state
Updated:
Updated:
February 18, 2021 01:40 IST
The pandemic has revealed its chronic inability and systemic weakness to take care of the poorest citizens
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The pandemic has revealed its chronic inability and systemic weakness to take care of the poorest citizens
Two new books reveal stark weaknesses of the Indian state in serving India’s poorer citizens. The first,
Locking Down the Poor: The Pandemic and India’s Moral Centre by Harsh Mander, records the plight of millions who lost incomes and shelter, and food and medical care too, in a harsh lockdown to create a sanitised cordon for better-off Indians during the pandemic. “Every system is perfectly designed to produce the results it is presently producing”, said Donella Meadows, a doyen of systems thinking. The second,
Ethnic Clashes Test Melting Pot Southwest Nigerian City By Joel Olatunde AGOI
02/16/21 AT 10:16 AM
The ruins of Shasha market, in the southwest Nigerian city of Ibadan, were still smouldering three days after deadly ethnic clashes.
Trader Ibrahim Adelabu surveyed what was left of the business he had built. His one blessing was that his family had escaped unhurt. Deadly ethnic clashes between the northern Hausa and southern Yoruba traders destroyed the Shasha market in Ibadan Photo: AFP / PIUS UTOMI EKPEI
Soldiers patrolled the streets and an armoured personal carrier guarded the market entrance as Adelabu joined others, picking through the debris of houses and stores while residents wailed with grief nearby.