AUGUST 1, 2020 Vol LV No 31 ` 110 A SAMEEKSHA TRUST PUBLICATION www.epw.in EDITORIALS Mental Health and Migrant Workers ‘One Nation, One Market’ The mental health system’s response to the COVID-19 Political Crisis in Rajasthan pandemic is marked by the avoidance of the FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK sociopolitical circumstances, and a rights-based language A Portrait of Defection Politics is essential to account for the trauma suffered by STRATEGIC AFFAIRS daily-wage migrant workers. page 39 Trump’s Desperation and Manufactured China Threat Sex Workers during the Lockdown COMMENTARY The stigma attached to the profession has intensified Our Essential Workers Need Essential Care the vulnerabilities of sex workers during the pandemic, COVID-19: Mental Healthcare without and their immediate distress has to be addressed from a Social Justice? human rights perspective, as well as by rethinking of Social Distancing and Sex Workers in India social norms and practices. page 21 Intellectual Property as Collateral REVIEW ARTICLE The State of Front-line Workers Governing Islam: Law, Empire, and Secularism in Modern South Asia; Divorcing Traditions: Essential workers are the backbone of the healthcare Islamic Marriage Law and the Making of delivery system, but their condition is debilitating Indian Secularism due to social hierarchies, lack of equipment, and PERSPECTIVES institutional neglect. page 13 (De)Valuing Dignity: Three Risks of Dignity Inflation in the Indian Dignity and Judicial Reasoning Supreme Court’s Reasoning The absence of a rigorous constitutional doctrine of dignity INSIGHT could devalue the concept due to the lack of clarity over ECONOMIC & POLITICAL WEEKLY Migrant Workers and the Politics of its constitutional status and practical scope. page 33 Mental Health SPECIAL ARTICLES Intellectuals, Truth and Truthfulness The Popular Aesthetics of Social Mobility The report concerning Jeffrey E Epstein’s connections to Harvard’s Trolley Problem Harvard University opens a window into the internal CURRENT STATISTICS working of eminent knowledge institutions, the integrity of POSTSCRIPT intellectuals, and the place of Truth in public life. page 53 ECONOMIC & POLITICAL WEEKLY August 1, 2020 | vol LV No 31 Trump’s Desperation and Manufactured China Threat EDITORIALS 10 The American conservative construction of an enemy in China is an attempt ‘One Nation, One Market’ ....................................7 to create fear psychosis among voters to shore up the electoral prospects of a Political Crisis in Rajasthan ....................................8 beleaguered Donald Trump. — Atul Bhardwaj, Inderjeet Parmar FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK A Portrait of Defection Politics ............................9 Our Essential Workers Need Essential Care 13 Through personal interviews of healthcare workers in India, the state of From 50 years ago ..............................................9 front-line workers in dealing with Covid-19 in the country is discussed. — Nikhil Srivastav, Aditi Priya & Payal Hathi STRATEGIC AFFAIRS Trump’s Desperation and Manufactured China Threat COVID-19: Mental Healthcare without Social Justice? —Atul Bhardwaj, Inderjeet Parmar ....................10 16 It is critical that the government takes long-term economic and mental health policy measures to ensure employment, basic amenities and public health. COMMENTARY — Roli Pandey, Shilpi Kukreja & Kumar Ravi Priya Our Essential Workers Need Essential Care —Nikhil Srivastav, Aditi Priya, Payal Hathi ....... 13 Social Distancing and Sex Workers in India COVID-19: Mental Healthcare without COVID Social Justice? —Roli Pandey, Shilpi Kukreja, 21 The deplorable condition of sex workers in India amidst the -19 lockdown Kumar Ravi Priya ...............................................16 is discussed as social distancing and the lockdown have left sex workers across the country in poverty and hunger. — Priyanka Tripathi, Chhandita Das Social Distancing and Sex Workers in India —Priyanka Tripathi, Chhandita Das .................. 21 Intellectual Property as Collateral Intellectual Property as Collateral —Abhishek Kumar .............................................24 24 The scope of using intellectual property as collateral is discussed, and through examples, it is shown that, owing to its volatile and dynamic nature, REVIEW ARTICLE IP is not a reliable collateral. — Abhishek Kumar Governing Islam: Law, Empire, and Secularism in Modern South Asia; Divorcing Traditions: Islamic Marriage Law and the Making of Indian Risks of Dignity Inflation in Supreme Court’s Reasoning Secularism—Secularism, the State and 33 While the Supreme Court of India holds dignity to be a foundational Muslim Personal Law constitutional value, judicial enthusiasm about dignity must be sensitive to the —Nandagopal R Menon ......................................28 risk of devaluing it in the absence of close legal analysis. — Pritam Baruah PERSPECTIVES (De)Valuing Dignity: Three Risks of Dignity Migrant Workers and the Politics of Mental Health Infl ation in the Indian Supreme Court’s 39 The roping in of tertiary-care mental health institutes by the government in Reasoning providing individualised (tele)counselling services to migrant workers needs —Pritam Baruah ................................................33 to be viewed with caution. — Sudarshan R Kottai INSIGHT Migrant Workers and the Politics of The Popular Aesthetics of Social Mobility Mental Health 46 This article argues that the fi lm Gully Boy’s (2019) quest is anchored within — Sudarshan R Kottai ........................................39 neo-liberal freedoms, albeit topped with a laudable linguistic experiment. ECONOMIC & POLITICAL WEEKLY SPECIAL ARTICLES — Akshaya Kumar The Popular Aesthetics of Social Mobility —Akshaya Kumar ............................................. 46 Harvard’s Trolley Problem Harvard’s Trolley Problem 53 The case of Harvard’s long association with the disgraced billionaire —Peter Ronald deSouza .....................................53 Jeffrey Epstein is discussed, and the analytical method advocated is the “trolley problem,” which is used to highlight the diffi culty of moral choices. CURRENT STATISTICS...........................................61 — Peter Ronald deSouza POSTSCRIPT Postscript Beats of Misogyny— Anjana Menon (63), Of Unlikely Bedfellows: Classical Performance 63 Anjana Menon on how Malayalam cinema continues to devalue the concept and the Internet —Shreya Ramnath (64), COVID of consent; Shreya Ramnath asks whether the -19 pandemic has Bespoke but Not Woke—Isha Bhallamudi (65), opened up Carnatic music to the virtual world; Isha Bhallamudi on how Last Lines (66) “woke” politics must go beyond critiquing and cancelling popular culture in aggressive ways; and Last Lines by Ponnappa. Letters .................................................................. 4 LETTERS Issn 0012-9976 Ever since the fi rst issue in 1966, EPW has been India’s premier journal for National Education The policy mentions that vocational comment on current affairs training of students will begin from Class and research in the social sciences. Policy 2020 It succeeded Economic Weekly (1949–1965), 6. This can have an adverse impact as it which was launched and shepherded RTE by Sachin Chaudhuri, he Right to Education ( ) Forum will push children into the labour market, who was also the founder-editor of EPW. Thas welcomed the reiteration of in- and their education will be discontinued. As editor for 35 years (1969–2004) Krishna Raj creasing public investment in education There is a lot of emphasis on digital gave EPW the reputation it now enjoys. to 6% of the gross domestic product in education, which the RTE Forum fears will Editor the recently approved National Education promote further segregation of children. GOPAL GURU Policy (NEP). The RTE Forum has also ac- India currently does not have adequate Executive Editor knowledged the recommendation on the infrastructure to support this, and more Lina Mathias universalisation of school education for than 70% children from marginalised SENIOR Assistant editorS lubna duggal three to 18 years. However, the organisa- backgrounds could be excluded, as evident INDU K tion has expressed its apprehension on from the COVID-19 pandemic, wherein Sunipa Dasgupta how universalisation will be achieved, as many children are missing online classes copy editorS the policy is silent on the extension of the due to the digital divide in the country. jyoti shetty Tejas Harad Right of Children to Free and Compulsory The policy, in the name of philanthropic RTE Assistant editor Education Act, 2009 ( Act). schools and public–private partnership Nachiket kulkarni The draft NEP 2019, submitted by the mode, is laying the road map for the entry editorIAL Assistant Kasturirangan Committee to the human of private players in education, which will Malvika Sharad resource development minister and sub- further commercialise education, and the CHIEF FINANCE OFFICER sequently released to the public for sug- existing inequalities will be exacerbated. J DENNIS RAJAKUMAR gestions, had promised downward and The RTE Forum has observed that this production RTE suneethi nair upward extension of the Act to in- policy is silent on the Common School Sys- clude pre-primary and secondary educa- tem (CSS), which was fi rst recommended Circulation KULDEEP NAWATHE tion within the ambit of the act. All sec- by the Kothari Commission (1964–66) and Advertisement Manager tions of the civil society welcomed this reaffi rmed in the National Education Poli-