MAY 23, 2020 Vol LV No 21 ` 110 A SAMEEKSHA TRUST PUBLICATION www.epw.in EDITORIALS Kerala’s COVID-19 Strategy No Stimulus in Economic Stimulus Package A detailed analysis of the state’s successful measures to The Idea of ‘Atmanirbhar’ India fight the current pandemic along with the predominance FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK given to local bodies and transparency in doing so page 35 Significance of the Petitionary Genre LAW & SOCIETY A Healthy Labour Force A Regressive World View on Scheduled Tribe Reservations India needs a data-driven exit and post-exit strategy from the COVID-19 lockdown to deal with the immediate COMMENTARY food crisis and structural blocks that limit poor Health and Nutrition of India’s Labour Force households’ access to food. page 13 and COVID-19 Challenges Mumbai’s Struggles with Public Health Crises: From Plague to COVID-19 Analysing Who We Are Coerced Movements and the Unravelling of a ‘People’ Immigrants and the institution of immigration pose Taxation in the Times of COVID-19 the question of inclusion of migrants in their adopted Yogendra Singh (1932–2020) lands and the social and political linkages with their societies of origin. page 21 BOOK REVIEWS The Politics of Swidden Farming: Environment and Development in Eastern India Taxing Times The Empire of Apostles: Religion, Accommodatio, and the Imagination of There is a demand worldwide for immediate tax Empire in Early Modern Brazil and India relief measures, and it would be helpful to view India’s PERSPECTIVES steps in this regard in relation to those taken by ECONOMIC & POLITICAL WEEKLY other countries. page 25 COVID-19, Public Health System and Local Governance in Kerala Community Self-governance in Education Synthesiser of Complex Ideas SPECIAL ARTICLES Yogendra Singh (1932–2020) was an outstanding scholar, Access to Credit in Eastern India theorist, teacher and founder member of Jawaharlal Revisiting Open Defecation Nehru University’s sociology centre who analysed Indian CURRENT STATISTICS society with understanding and concern. page 28 ECONOMIC & POLITICAL WEEKLY may 23, 2020 | vol LV No 21 A Regressive World View on Scheduled Tribe Reservations EDITORIALS No Stimulus in Economic Stimulus Package ........7 10 The Supreme Court’s setting aside of the preference scheme for Scheduled Tribes in schools in Scheduled Areas in Andhra Pradesh goes against the The Idea of ‘Atmanirbhar’ India ..............................8 high court’s more nuanced and sensitive position in the same case. FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK — Alok Prasanna Kumar Signifi cance of the Petitionary Genre ................. 9 Health and Nutrition of India’s Labour Force From 50 years ago ..............................................9 13 India needs a data-driven exit and post-exit strategy from the COVID-19 LAW & SOCIETY lockdown that will not only mitigate the immediate food crisis, but also reduce A Regressive World View on the long-term structural bottlenecks limiting poor households’ access to food. Scheduled Tribe Reservations — Uma Lele, Sangeeta Bansal & J V Meenakshi —Alok Prasanna Kumar .....................................10 Mumbai’s Struggles with Public Health Crises COMMENTARY Health and Nutrition of India’s Labour Force 17 The economic catastrophe precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the and COVID-19 Challenges response of the dismal public health system has actually led to the —Uma Lele, Sangeeta Bansal, heightening of the public health crisis. — Ravi Duggal J V Meenakshi ..................................................... 13 Mumbai’s Struggles with Public Health Crises: Coerced Movements and the Unravelling of a ‘People’ From Plague to COVID-19 21 There is a need to take cognisance of the coevalness of deterritorialisation, —Ravi Duggal .................................................... 17 capital accumulation and the pronounced turn to the ethnic in the conceiving Coerced Movements and the Unravelling of sociopolitical identities. — Sudeep Basu, Sarasij Majumder of a ‘People’ —Sudeep Basu, Sarasij Majumder ...................... 21 Taxation in the Times of COVID-19 Taxation in the Times of COVID-19 —Kajol A Punjabi ...............................................25 25 An analysis of the measures to provide tax relief by the Government of India shows the need to adopt a holistic approach and devise a strategic plan in An Apostle of Sociological Theory: Yogendra Singh (1932–2020) respect of direct tax laws. — Kajol A Punjabi —K L Sharma .....................................................28 An Apostle of Sociological Theory: Yogendra Singh (1932–2020) BOOK REVIEWS 28 A student and fellow sociologist reminisces about Yogendra Singh, a The Politics of Swidden Farming: Environment distinguished scholar and theorist, and a founding member of sociology and Development in Eastern India— Swidden Farming among the Yimchunger Nagas centres at the University of Rajasthan and Jawaharlal Nehru University. — Jelle J P Wouters ...........................................30 — K L Sharma The Empire of Apostles: Religion, Accommodatio, and the Imagination of Empire in Early Modern COVID-19, Public Health System and Local Governance in Kerala Brazil and India— An Entangled History: 35 Kerala has been successful in containing COVID-19 and in achieving a low Jesuit Missionaries in Brazil and India — Divya Kannan ................................................33 rate of spread, high recovery, and low fatality. — T M Thomas Isaac, Rajeev Sadanandan PERSPECTIVES COVID-19, Public Health System and Community Self-governance in Education Local Governance in Kerala 41 The struggles for self-determination and self-governance by Adivasis have —T M Thomas Isaac, Rajeev Sadanandan ...........35 providedECONOMIC & POLITICAL WEEKLY ample legal space to alter the present governance in education to Community Self-governance in Education democratise and establish community self-governance in education. —C R Bijoy ......................................................... 41 — C R Bijoy SPECIAL ARTICLES Access to Credit in Eastern India: Access to Credit in Eastern India Implications for the Economic Well-being of 46 The impact of access to credit on the economic well-being of agricultural Agricultural Households—Anjani Kumar, Vinay K Sonkar, Sunil Saroj ............................... 46 households is empirically evaluated using a large, farm-level data set from eastern Indian states. — Anjani Kumar, Vinay K Sonkar & Sunil Saroj Revisiting Open Defecation: Evidence from a Panel Survey in Rural North India, 2014–18 —Aashish Gupta, Nazar Khalid, Revisiting Open Defecation Devashish Deshpande, Payal Hathi, 55 The results from a late 2018 survey that revisited households from a 2014 Avani Kapur, Nikhil Srivastav, Sangita Vyas, Dean Spears, Diane Coffey ..................................55 survey in four states—Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh— show that open defecation remains very common in these four states. CURRENT STATISTICS.......................................... 64 — Aashish Gupta, Nazar Khalid, Devashish Deshpande, Payal Hathi, Avani Kapur, Nikhil Srivastav, Sangita Vyas, Dean Spears & Diane Coffey Letters .................................................................. 4 LETTERS Issn 0012-9976 Ever since the fi rst issue in 1966, EPW has been India’s premier journal for Condemning Harassment government and the humiliation meted comment on current affairs out to him, there has been police and research in the social sciences. It succeeded Economic Weekly (1949–1965), e, the members of Jan Swasthya excess. However, it is puzzling as to which was launched and shepherded by Sachin Chaudhuri, WAbhiyan and Medico Friend Circle, why this excess occurred unless one who was also the founder-editor of EPW. strongly condemn the harassment and looks at Rao’s recent criticism of the As editor for 35 years (1969–2004) Krishna Raj police brutality meted out to Sudhakar Government of Andra Pradesh and his gave EPW the reputation it now enjoys. Rao of Visakhapatnam. On 16 May 2020, subsequent suspension. The use of a Editor Rao, a government doctor and anaesthetist stereotype of alcoholism, drug addic- GOPAL GURU at the Area Hospital, Narsipatnam, tion and mental unsoundness to stig- Executive Editor Visakhapatnam district of Andhra matise the doctor is not only to justify Lina Mathias Pradesh was manhandled by the police. police actions but also to discredit his SENIOR Assistant editorS lubna duggal He was beaten, his hands tied, and was criticism of the government’s callous- INDU K paraded half-naked on the streets of the ness on the issue of the provision of Sunipa Dasgupta Visakhapatnam city before being taken PPE. Such treatment of a doctor will copy editorS jyoti shetty to the King George Hospital. The shock- demoralise the health personnel strug- Tejas Harad ing videos of this event in the news and gling to provide medical care in Assistant editors social media are evidence enough that government hospitals with inadequate Nachiket kulkarni SHRUTI JAIN such a treatment has indeed occurred. protection. Moreover, a person who is The alleged offence was that he was ine- indeed of unsound mind or otherwise editorIAL Assistant Malvika Sharad briated, not of sound mind and was using anxious, depressed or even inebriated CHIEF FINANCE OFFICER foul language. The ill-treatment is at odds needs a humane and caring response, J DENNIS RAJAKUMAR with the nature of the offence and raises not violence and brutality. In this production the question as to why this has occurred. specifi c case,