This study examines the evolving role and experiences of Frontline Workers (FLWs) during and after the nation-wide lockdown in 2020.
The findings provide insights into how FLWs shouldered additional responsibilities, how they have adapted to the disruption of routine health and nutrition related services, and how they have initiated creative responses to help the system adapt to the ‘new normal’.
In May 2020, about 50 residents of a cluster of homeless shelters near the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) hospital tested COVID-19 positive. Officials from the Delhi Shelter Urban Improvement Board (DUSIB), the state nodal agency responsible for the capital’s approximately 220 24X7 night shelters, later admitted these residents to nearby hospitals but did not initiate widespread testing in Delhi’s shelters. The AIIMS shelter cluster consisted mostly of tent structures set up by the government each winter on a temporary basis. Their tenure was extended this year to accommodate more people in need during the nation-wide Lockdown.
AIIMS shelters were crowded spaces. The tents were 600 square feet in size and officially reserved for 50 residents – just 12 square feet per person. About 18 people actually used these tents each night, indicating that 33.8 square feet of personal space existed between residents. This is far below the national shelter floor space guideline of 50 square feet per resident stipulated by the National Urban Livelihood Mission Scheme of Shelters and endorsed by the Delhi High Court and the Honorable Supreme Court.
Floor space constraints pervade Delhi’s homeless shelter system. DUSIB allots, on average, 18 square feet of personal space to the 18,478 residents that the system’s 223 shelters can officially accommodate. About 7400 people – 40% of the system’s official residential capacity – use these shelters. The amount of personal space available to these residents – the true as opposed to official shelter area – is 45 square feet per person. This tells us that (a) the average Delhi shelter operates at full capacity to overcrowded conditions and (b) the low percentage of homeless people who use the capital’s shelters represents a limit of how many people can access shelters, not merely the number who do.
In that context, this study examines the question:
What is the extent of overcrowding in Delhi’s shelters and its implications on the ability of residents in these spaces to socially distance to prevent the spread of COVID-19?
Through an analysis of (a) occupancy, residential capacity and floor-space data archived by DUSIB; (b) district-wise homeless and overall population estimates tabulated by the Census; and (c) discussions with DUSIB and Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officials , this study examines the nature and implications of limited floor space across Delhi’s homeless shelter system to ascertain the extent to which the system’s capacity and coverage problems are:
rooted in shelter planning and design; and how in that context,
shelter space constraints may pose a public health risk to homeless people during the COVID-19 pandemic
districts with rapidly growing overall populations where such space shortages are concentrated may continue to exclude homeless people from shelter; and
shelters that, comparatively, have more space may also have the potential to accommodate more people, at least in the near-term.
The overall vision of Project Nirmal is the demonstration of appropriate, low-cost, decentralized, inclusive and sustainable sanitation service delivery solutions for two small towns (Angul and Dhenkanal) in Odisha leading to improved sanitation access for all households and integration of FSM in the sanitation value chain, through enabling institutional and financial arrangements and increased private sector participation.
The project is being implemented by Practical Action and Centre for Policy Research with support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Arghyam; Housing and Urban Development, Government of Odisha; and Municipalities of Angul and Dhenkanal.
The overall vision of Project Nirmal is the demonstration of appropriate, low-cost, decentralized, inclusive and sustainable sanitation service delivery solutions for two small towns (Angul and Dhenkanal) in Odisha leading to improved sanitation access for all households and integration of FSM in the sanitation value chain, through enabling institutional and financial arrangements and increased private sector participation.
The project is being implemented by Practical Action and Centre for Policy Research with support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Arghyam; Housing and Urban Development, Government of Odisha; and Municipalities of Angul and Dhenkanal.
Coastal Zone Management Authorities (CZMAs) are one of the oldest environmental regulatory bodies in India. On the basis of an order of the Supreme Court in April 1996 (WP 664/1993) and under MoEF orders issued in 1998, these bodies were constituted in every coastal state and Union Territory and at the national level to take crucial decisions regarding the use of coastal lands and the management of coastal environments. They implement the 2011 Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Notification that was first promulgated in 1991 and amended over 25 times. Though much has been written about the Notification, the performance of CZMAs and the institutional challenges to implementation have never been studied.
Detailed studies on the workings of institutions set up for environment regulation are essential if we are to address specific environmental challenges and reshape regulatory procedures and bodies to be effective in doing this. This report is the first systematic effort to study the structure and functioning of CZMAs and analyse their performance on the tasks of project appraisal, coastal zone mapping, actions against violations and conservation. The report has mainly relied on primary data that includes minutes of over 350 CZMA meetings between January 1999 and March 2014 and 39 interviews with sitting and ex-members of the CZMAs and staff, consultants and officers of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) in charge of implementation of the CRZ Notification.
The report consists of five chapters and a set of five report cards that visually depict the comparative performance of the State CZMAs.
Download Report
Executive Summary
CRZ Report Cards
Full Webinar sharing key findings of the CZMA report
India’s approach to climate policy is based on amplifying synergies between sustainable development and climate outcomes, or co-benefits. However, the evidence base for the magnitude of these synergies remains limited. This brief summarizes the result of global models, which provide strong evidence of complementarities between climate mitigation outcomes, reduced air pollution and enhanced energy security. These results are robust across a wide range of models. They suggest there are considerable gains across multiple objectives of development policy from pursuing India’s stated co-benefits approach to climate policy.
Suggested citation: Narasimha D. Rao, David McCollum, Navroz K. Dubash and Radhika Khosla (2015) Development and Climate Policy Synergies: Insights from global modelling studies. Policy Brief. Center for Policy Research, New Delhi. Available at: https://cprindia.org/research/reports/development-and-climate-policy-synergies-insights-global-modelling-studies
About the Report (A Global Pact for the Environment – Legal Foundations)
The project leading to this compilation of studies has two purposes. The first is to leave a record of the intellectual discussions underpinning the project of a Global Pact for the Environment, with its many sources, views and debates. The second is to contribute to the discussions of the ad hoc open-ended working group established by UN General Assembly A/72/L.51. The report gathers compilations from some of the main authorities in international environmental law from around the World. Each chapter is written in a concise, self-contained and practical manner. The analysis focuses on the different principles and aspects of the Draft Global Pact but it also reviews a range of other materials and topics. Some chapters survey aspects that were not included in the Draft Global Pact.
A central issue in the ongoing negotiations towards a new international climate change agreement this year in Paris is how the agreement will differentiate obligations among developed and developing countries. Differentiation among parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, based on their “common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,” is a defining feature of the international climate change regime. This policy brief outlines the basis for and forms of differentiation in the climate regime, and the key areas where differentiation has arisen in the negotiations for a 2015 agreement. The brief then presents a range of design options, drawn from the climate regime as well as other multilateral environmental agreements, for differentiation in the 2015 agreement. It concludes that the most feasible approach is likely to be a hybrid one that tailors the manner of differentiation to the specific elements of the agreement.
This report is based on research and analysis undertaken with the objective of deepening the understanding of CCAs in India, primarily to achieve two goals. Firstly, to bring to light the unknown conservation efforts undertaken in India and secondly, to attempt an action plan that would cater to the individual and overall needs of these areas. This report is based on research in nineteen sites across six Indian states, studied over a year. The wealth of knowledge of CCAs available through a decade of research in India provided the lens through which the data, from the nineteen sites, was analysed. This report attempts to deepen the discussion by (re)defining CCAs and establishing, what appear to be, their core characteristics. The report continues to identify overarching threats and challenges faced by CCAs within the Indian context. The effects that these spaces create within the ecological, cultural and political spheres of the CCAs in question are also documented herein. In recent years, the view that conservation is a purely technocratic activity is changing. This allows for more spaces for community participation in conservation. The report is organised in two parts. It gives a brief analysis of the various laws and policies that have been and can been applied to support and strengthen CCAs. It also takes the reader through some case studies from different parts of India. In conclusion, the report attempts the ambitious task of weaving together the stories of conservation to synthesise the many experiences into a document that can be used to both further the discussion on these spaces and further practice within these such a category pf conservation.
This photo document is part of a larger exercise on documenting the ‘Community Monitoring’ process of the Right to Education Act (RTE), a process that first began in 2010 when this team was at the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and received support from the Ministry of Human Resource Development. The documentation of the exercise was later conducted as part of the PAGE Team’s work at CPR.
While community monitoring in Education is relatively new, it has already shown tremendous potential in transforming the delivery of education in India. Its strength lies in the idea that monitoring can best be achieved by the rights-holders themselves through a system that empowers them to provide feed-back to the relevant authorities on the status of implementation of the Act. This also involves building a culture of dialogue amongst the people and with the administration. Based on these notions NCPCR conducted a pilot in 12 States across the country between 2010-2013, involving several local groups and the community itself in monitoring their schools under the RTE Act. It generated enormous enthusiasm amongst the community and provided a platform and space to voice their concerns, with outcomes also being many and varied – ranging from improved mid day meals and functional School Management Committees (SMC)