 Hello and welcome to Dispatches from India, a show by People's Dispatch where we bring you some of the top stories from the country, what Indians are talking about and their effect on economy, polity and society. Manipur is one of the five Indian states where elections were held recently for a new legislative assembly. Polling was being held in two phases on February 28 and March 5. The exercise aside from political aspects requires massive personnel and logistical coordination. The state's chief electoral officer decided, among other measures, to set up 600 polling booths managed exclusively by women, excluding security personnel. Our reporter spoke to some of the women deputed for polling duty to get a sense of why this measure was taken and what sort of impact it may have. I think the first time we had women polling personnel in Manipur was in 2019 Lok Sabha elections and in that time, yeah, school was completely again manned, like you said, by women polling personnel. And it was a very successful one. It was done very peacefully and there was no complaints. So actually I got a lot of reports from the previous officers that in fact women actually perform better, they're more successful and they were very careful and very cautious. I think it's because sometimes men tend to feel very overconfident and they tend to make mistakes because of the overconfidence. But in the case of women, they're more careful and they're always revising and checking in case something is wrong. Another thing is I think women are better conflict resolvers. I think they know how to handle situations in case it gets, you know, in case people start fighting or there's some disturbance. They know how to calm people down. They know how to persuade them so that things go smoothly. So I think they have the skills from social conditioning, I guess. We have something called Mission 300. So four polling stations of Yaeskul and one polling station of Bankai which recorded a slightly lower than average percentage of people voting. These polling stations we have been focusing on them and we have had a lot of sweep initiatives, you know, where we are trying to engage more people to come out and vote. And I think women will play a very big role and the fact that we have all these women polling personnel, I think more women will feel encouraged to come out and will even have crechies centers in case women with child, if they can keep their child for a while and then yes. And we also have in some polling stations will be having medical personnel also. So in case they can take, you know, any kind of health checkup if they want to get done, we'll be having some of the vaccination points in many of these polling stations also so they can get vaccinated as well. So we're trying to have many of these things, you know, three, multiple things happening at the same time in this polling stations so that people feel more engaged, not just as, you know, place where they can come to vote, but they can actually engage with the community and they can actually get something out of it. The joint platform of Central Trade Unions and Sectoral Federations or Associations in India has called for a general strike on March 28 and 29 to coincide with the second phase of the budget session of parliament. The country-wide strike was earlier scheduled for February 23 and 24, but was deferred due to the Omicron Wave. The call for this national strike has been made to, and I quote, save the people and save the nation from the destructive anti-national policy regime." The unions say that the central government's policies and divisive politics is what led to the strike. So the 28, 29 March general strike this year, that call was given by the joint platform of the Central Trade Unions and almost all the independent sectoral federations. The strike is with the slogan, save the nation, save the people. It is not just about the demands of only the workers, but it is to save the country, to save the country from disastrous policies being pursued by the BJP government led by Prime Minister Modi. The demands of course include the demands of the workers, the demands of minimum wages, the demand to stop privatization, the demand to stop contractualization, to curb the price rise, etc., all the earlier demands that were raised by the joint trade union platform. But in addition to that, the demands also include the demand for cash transfer for the crores of workers who lost their income, particularly during the pandemic period, workers in other sections of the people, and also free food grains for all the needy persons. Today, we all know the serious problems of unemployment is there before the people. Unemployment has increased, job losses have increased, crores of jobs have been lost during the pandemic period. Most of the jobs have not been recovered. Still, people who are working are working for lower wages and without any social security or other benefits. And it is during this period that the government has enacted the labor courts, the three labor courts were enacted during the last one and half years before during this period. And also the government is trying to curtail the right to strike. It has enacted the Essential Defense Services Maintenance Act. And also in addition to that, everywhere we see wherever the workers are struggling, the particularly in the BJP ruling states, the workers are being prevented, they are being attacked. And similarly, we have seen the under pressure, the government has repealed the formulas. But even then till now, the other assurances that the government has given to the farmers have not been implemented. So and in addition to that, the national monetization pipeline, this is meant to, in one word, if you say it is to sell the entire country, the infrastructure that was made by the people's money through their labor, everything which is ready made is being handed over to the private corporates, national and international at a very throw away prices, the highways, the railways, the seaports, the telecom and telecom towers and the fiber. Similarly, the power generation, the private transmission lines, the oil and gas pipelines, all these things are being handed over to the big corporates, and they will pay, they will utilize this infrastructure and pay a nominal price to the government, which is actually just handing them over to the private parties for them to please the people, all the charges will increase, they will in the user charges will increase, railway fares will increase, the gas and petroleum product prices will increase. All these things will increase, ultimately the burden will be on the common people, whereas the big corporates, they will reap the benefits. The ongoing crisis in Ukraine has resonated in India too, due to the large number of students studying in the European country. About 20,000 Indian students were reportedly in Ukraine at the start of the war. Many of them medical students. Several struggled to flee the country and some even experienced discrimination. One student was killed in the firing. While the Indian government has conducted evacuation operations, larger questions continue to be raised as to why thousands of students need to go so far to gain an education. Ramavi Baru, a professor at the Center of Social Medicine and Community Health at the Javaharlal Nehru University, talks about some of these issues. The recent statements by both the prime minister and some other remarks that have come from other ministers actually show a lack of complete understanding of the reasons why students travel to what I would call the middle income countries. And the major destinations are Russia, it is the Ukraine, it's Uzbekistan, it is also China and more recently the Philippines. We have a public-private mix with about 60% of all medical colleges in the private sector and the remaining 40 in the public sector. And this is something that has grown over the years. And in fact, there are states in this country where the proportion of private medical colleges, especially in the southern and western states of India, constitute more than 60% in the private sector and only around 40% in the public sector. So we are talking about a fairly highly privatized medical education in India. And to add to it, we also have an unregulated private sector, which means that the the fee structure, the quality of education, etc., are extremely variable in the private sector. And therefore, the people who make it through the common entrance exam for medicine, if they make it to the public sector medical colleges, and the better ranking ones among that, they are able to afford it, afford the fee structure. However, if they do not make it into the public sector, then they are left with choices only in the very, very varied private sector. And there, there is no cap on capitation fees. There is really no cap on the cost that the students will have to incur. So it is these children who have very large numbers, as we see in the Ukraine crisis. And in China, the estimate is there are some 23,000 Indian students studying medicine. So you're finding a very large exodus of students who have who aspire to be doctors, but cannot actually afford to pay for medical education in India. This particular crisis is throwing up the possibility for actually reexamining the maladies that face medical education. It also is going to be very, very important to look at what is the quality of doctors being produced, even by Indian medical colleges. And I have been a very, very strong advocate of a common exit exam that is irrespective of where you get educated, whether you're getting educated abroad or in India. If you have to qualify, you should really have a common exit exam. And this is something that has been opposed by many professional bodies in this country. But I think that is not the way forward at all for us. I hope that this crisis will alert the government to look at this problem much more realistically, and to actually bring in a system whereby the quality of medical education is regulated. And also the cost of medical education in the private sector is severely, in some ways, severely checked. And to ensure that students, if you want to ensure students not going to countries, which are middle income countries, then you have to do something to set your own house in order before you point fingers at young people who will have aspirations who have the right to have aspirations and to a better life. So I really think this is an issue that requires serious attention. And finally, March 8 International Women's Day brings a mixed picture for Indian women. They have been at the forefront of several resistance movements while they struggle for the state to honour their basic rights. Women kept the fight against the amended Citizenship Act alive and participated in the anti-farm law movement in large numbers and have also been in the forefront of massive struggles for care workers' rights. They are still protesting to ensure basic entitlements such as land rights and human rights, and raising awareness on the rights of all Indians. Pragya Singh, NewsClick's opinion editor, speaks on the issue. It is International Women's Day on 8 March. The theme this year is gender equality for a sustainable tomorrow and imagining a gender equal world free of bias, stereotypes and discrimination. Indian women have been beating the stereotype. All last year, they participated in the world's longest running protest, the movement of Indian farmers against the farm laws, which the government withdrew in November. In 2019, women's spearheaded protests against a new law which made religion a criteria for citizenship. But India has a long way to go. Its most popular state, Uttar Pradesh, has only 41 ruling party women legislators in a 403-member assembly. Women are fighting for the government to implement their right to ancestral and agriculture properties. More than 80% of Indian women depend on agriculture for a living. This sector has the smallest share of India's national income, just 17% of the GDP. As International Women's Day strives for a diverse, equitable and inclusive world, Indian policymakers have not started confronting the double burden which limits the economic participation of women. There is also extensive gender discrimination in healthcare access for women in India. The UNDP also revealed in a report that 90% of men and women hold some sort of bias against women. The World Economic Forum has acknowledged that gender parity is still a century in the distance. This is why the theme this year is to not just acknowledge but take action to create a level playing field. This year the All India Democratic Women's Association and other progressive women's organizations have given a joint call to gather and commemorate International Women's Day in the national capital New Delhi on 8th March. That is all there is for today. Thank you for watching People's Dispatch.