Sri Lanka's Economic Crisis, Taliban's Ban on Girls' Education, India's Covid-19 Curbs To End on March 31 & More

  1. Sri Lanka is running short on food, medicines, fuel, paper and other essential commodities. All exams have been cancelled indefinitely. Thousands queue up for fuel everyday, three have died waiting in line. Troops have been deployed to petrol pumps. 400 grams of milk powder costs 790 Sri Lankan rupees.

  2. Traders can't afford to import anything due to a critical shortfall of foreign currency. Sri Lanka relies almost entirely on imports for its daily essentials such as sugar, pulses, cereals and medicines.

  3. Tourism, Sri Lanka's primary source of foreign currency, has been hit hard in the last two years. First by the 2019 serial blasts across Colombo on Easter, then by Covid-19 lockdowns.

  4. Sri Lanka owes a mountain of debt to China, which has refused to restructure loan repayments to ease this crisis. In the last decade China has lent Sri Lanka over $5bn for projects including roads, an airport and ports.

  5. India has announced a $1 billion line of credit to Sri Lanka for procurement of essential items. Last month, India extended a $500 million line of credit to Sri Lanka to help it purchase petroleum products.

  6. 16 Sri Lankans, all Tamils from the north, fleeing unemployment and food shortage, have reached Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu's intelligence officers have obtained information that around 2,000 people fleeing the island are likely to arrive in the coming weeks.


UNDER CONTROL

😷 WHAT: Two years after the Indian government first invoked the Disaster Management Act to impose Covid-19 containment measures, the Centre has decided that all national-level curbs can come to an end on March 31, 2022.

🦠 WHY: Steep decline in number of new cases + positivity rate; increasing vaccination coverage; high public awareness of health protocols

💉 WHAT NOW: The Health Ministry's advisories on Covid-19 containment measures, including on the use of face mask and hand hygiene, will continue to guide the overall national response to the pandemic, the Centre has said.

👉 The Union Home Secretary will cease to be the nodal officer for pan-India Covid-19 containment measures.

🚨 Local-level decisions can be taken on penalties for not wearing mask etc.


HEARTBREAK FOR GIRLS

🗓 WHAT: Over six months ago, the Taliban took over Afghanistan and effectively shut down education for girls. In need of humanitarian aid for Afghans, the Taliban made several pledges in line with the international pressure to grant the right to education to all. One of them was—schooling for girls will resume when the new academic year begins in March 2022.

🏫 NOW: Today was the first day back for girls across Afghanistan after 186 days. And, within hours, the Taliban reversed its decision, and ordered all girls above Grade 6 to go home.

💔 HEARTBREAK: Visuals on social media show Afghan girls, adhering to the Taliban’s demands of appropriate attire, crying, telling media persons how excited they were to return to school and how all they they wanted to do was study.

🏫 THE SITUATION: Girls have been banned from school beyond Grade 6 in most of the country since the Taliban seized power in mid-August 2020.

📚 Universities opened up earlier this year in much of the country. In Kabul, private schools and universities have remained open for all.

❗️A handful of provinces continue to provide education to all, but most provinces have closed educational institutions for girls and women.


IMRAN FURTHER ISOLATED

🇵🇰 Ahead of the no-confidence vote against Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan on Friday, three major allies of the ruling government have decided to join the opposition alliance.

✊🏽 24 members of Imran Khan's party earlier announced they will vote in favour of the no-trust move and dissociated themselves from the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government.


THE AIR WE BREATHE

😷 WHAT: Ten of the top 15 most polluted cities in the world are in India and mostly around Delhi, according to the World Air Quality Report 2021 released by IQAir, a Swiss firm.

📍 NATIONAL CAPITAL: Delhi is ranked at #4, and has been labelled the worst-polluted capital city in the world for a fourth consecutive year.

🌎 BIG PICTURE: Globally, Bangladesh is the most polluted country followed by Chad. India is ranked at #5. China fell to the 22nd rank in 2021, down from 14th place a year earlier.


WHAT NEXT?

🎾 WHAT: World Tennis #1 for the last 119 weeks, Ashleigh Barty has announced her retirement at the age of 25 and at a time when she’s at the top of her sport.

🏆 The three-time Grand Slam winner won Australian Open in January 2022 without dropping a single set in seven matches.

🧘‍♀️ WHY: “I don’t have the physical drive, the emotional want and everything it takes to challenge yourself at the very top of the level any more. I am spent.”—Barty in an Instagram post

⭐️ MOVING ON: “The time is right now for me to step away and chase other dreams and to put the rackets down.”


DOCU-FICTION?

🖊 WHAT: Women-run news organisation in rural India, Khabar Lahariya, has released a statement saying the Oscar-nominated documentary about it, Writing With Fire, narrates only a part of their story, and “part stories have a way of distorting the whole sometimes”.
📌 EXCERPTS FROM KL’s STATEMENTS:

🗯 “The film is a moving and powerful document, but its presentation of Khabar Lahariya as an organisation with a particular and consuming focus of reporting on one party and the mobilisation around this, is inaccurate.”

🗯 “In our 20 years of practising independent journalism, it has been a foundational value to be deliberate about how and who we include in the frame or story, about corroboration, about multiple perspectives. These values are not reflected in the version of ourselves we see in the film.”

🗯 ““In 20 years, we have reported on (and befriended) many parties in Uttar Pradesh that have said they will stand for the rights of the poor, the marginalised, and we have shown them all the mirror when they have not done what they said…”

🗯 “We have not, as the film would have one believe, been able to carry our caste identities on our sleeves, with bravado and humour. We have had to be discreet, often fearful.”

🎞 FILMMAKERS RESPOND: Directors Rintu and Sushmit said that they do not believe that they misrepresented their subject.

🗯 “We filmed Khabar Lahariya’s role as an independent watchdog in a dynamically changing political landscape from 2016-2019. During this period, the ruling party was the most important party at that time and so editorially, we focused on that aspect of their reporting. It was never our intention to create any other impression.”— Directors to Scroll.in

🎥 FYI: The Oscars are next week, Writing With Fire is a crowd-favourite in the Documentary Feature category.


ICYMI: MARCI SHORE ON RUSSIA'S WAR

Journalist Rahul Pandita spoke to Yale historian and author Marci Shore about the war on Ukraine, Ukrainian resistance and Vladimir Putin's endgame. Shore is one of the foremost voices in European and Ukrainian history; the interview, on our Youtube channel, is a must-watch. Here's a snippet from it—


SOME #ARTTHERAPY FOR THE EYES


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