 Hello and welcome to Daily D, brief brought to you by People's Dispatch. I am Shriya and today we bring the latest from the United States where rail workers are about to go on strike and the government is trying to stop them. We also talk about a report on the inequalities in the global response to AIDS and finally elections are on in a major Indian state and we bring you some of the key issues. Rail workers in the US are angry at brutal work schedules and the lack of paid holidays. They have been protesting and mobilizing for months. In September the Joe Biden administration intervened to formulate a deal but some of the big unions of workers voted to reject the deal. Now the US Congress has intervened to pass a bill that might block a strike by them. Anish from People's Dispatch is with us to discuss the latest on this issue. Hi Anish, so what is the latest that we have and what is this deal that is being imposed? So this deal is essentially the tentative deal that was arrived at based on the recommendations of the mediation committee that Biden administration had constituted when they were trying to mediate between the trade unions and the rail operators, the railroad operators. So in that several unions, at least four of the 12 unions representing about 100,000 workers, railroad workers rejected the deal by a clear majority in all four cases and the deal was only accepted quite begrudgingly in most of the other cases where you actually see not like an overwhelming support coming from members of the other trade unions either. So it is like a large number, a large plurality of the trade union members do not accept the bill and there is also even when you look at like the majorities, it wasn't like a very, you know, very outright or very enthusiastic majority in favor of the bill. Now even when the four, even if you just consider these four trade unions, in this case, the fact is that it is essential that these four trade unions be taken into the entire process itself. Under mining their right to decide what the trade, what the deal would look like is undermining the entire process itself because each of these trade unions represent sectors and units that are essential for the operation of railroads across the United States and so if you're undermining even one of them and that is pretty much how it works, like even if one of them actually rejects the deal then the whole rail union goes into strike. So this is something that the Democrats have tried to avoid. They got Republican support as well as we've seen even though it's not the majority of the Republicans but a good number to give them a clear majority in the house and the deal kind of gives them a 25% rise which is big in the past four decades actually the biggest raise that rail workers have been given but the thing is that we need to talk about the fact that for the past four decades there has been clear stagnation and in the last decade or so there's been real term decline in wages even if not in absolute terms there has in real terms the decline in wages were not considered when this wage hike was suggested by the Biden administration and that itself is far below what trade unions are demanding for rail workers which is for them is a fair and just wage hike that is necessary for them to not only have a decent living wage but also to compensate for the sacrifices that they've made during the labor shortages and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you so much Anish for joining us today. Every year on December 1 the world co-memorates World AIDS Day. In its 2022 dangerous inequalities report UN AIDS highlights how inequalities of gender, age and treatment accessibility are key drivers of the pandemic. Well these three intersect the consequences are amplified even further. We're joined by Anna from People's Health Movement who has the latest on this issue. Hello Anna welcome to the show so can you take us through some of the key findings of this report? Well simply put the new UN AIDS report shows that the global AIDS response is completely off track well maybe not completely but seriously off track for sure. So first thing we have seen that the decline in AIDS related deaths and the number of new HIV infections is slowing down so this means that also many regions are also seeing an increase in new infections. So what the report does is focus it focuses on inequities that are impacting the global AIDS response so this includes disparities when we talk about access to care or how the indicators are going it looks at differences between women and men it looks at the differences that some key populations such as LGBTI communities experience or sex workers and so on. So one of the one of the most most interesting elements of the report I would say is the gender dimension of it and the data that it shows here are particularly striking because UN AIDS here states that gender inequalities are actually a key driver of the AIDS pandemic today. So you know if we talk about numbers in the period that the report looks at we have seen that in many parts of Africa young women are three times more likely to get HIV compared to men of the same age but of course this is not only about AIDS disparities so it's not AIDS specific women's health and the likelihood of them contracting HIV is impacted by the overall health context in which they are forced to navigate so it has a lot to do with gender inequalities it has a lot to do with power dynamics essentially it's more complex than only looking at a single disease. So for example if we look at gender-based violence and intimate partner violence last year the report states that women who have been exposed who have experienced intimate partner violence were more than three times more likely to contract HIV than those who were not and then of course you know it's important to say that and the report shows this that if we look at how this can be this can be alleviated it's again not only health system specific it has a lot to do with changing the gender norms that you will live with and the report says that you know by making sure that we change the gender norms that are predominant among men and boys we are not only doing it for their benefit so we're not only reducing the risk of them acquiring HIV but we are also indirectly acting towards decreasing the likelihood of women and girls contracting HIV which only shows the importance of having a more complex approach to this question but then again of course women are not the only group who are mentioned in the report I've said that you know key populations which historically have been have been exposed to HIV risks more they have experienced serious issues and they are often not prioritized as they should be in national policies we have also seen wearing trends among children because we are seeing for for wanting a widening and deepening disparity in access to care between adults and children so for example according to the report around 60% of children between 5 and 14 years of age are living with HIV not receiving treatment so that's you know it's an enormous number if you think about it and then of course there are also problems with the diagnosis because children are being diagnosed late and that of course impacts the possibility of a reaction and of making sure that they have access to to the care and to the to the medicines that they need and Anna there are some regional inequalities also like the report notes how there's been hardly any decline in infections when it comes to areas like sub-Saharan Africa India Myanmar Vietnam so what can be said about that and another question would be that what has taken the world so long to tackle the HIV infection well I think the two can also be considered together because we have mentioned before that you know it's the global AIDS response has also a lot to do is very connected to what's happening on the local on the local level and that brings us to the finances because we are seeing on the local level that health systems are definitely not being prioritized although the COVID-19 pandemic was hailed as some kind of big lesson for for policymakers so we're not seeing the money going towards health systems and actually guaranteeing more like stronger and bigger budgets for for national health policies would ensure that people living with with AIDS and HIV would have access to to the care they need this is also true for the global level because we are seeing that you know although the the global AIDS response has been recognized by the UN it has been recognized by a number of international institutions it is not seeing the adequate amount of commitment when it comes to finances and I think it should be said that this is not not specific to AIDS again it's something that we have seen in in the case of many other diseases tuberculosis for one thing the recent tuberculosis report also indicates that you know a lack of funding has actually put us has widened the gap between where we are now and where where we wanted to see to see ourselves in in 2020 2025 in in five years whenever so I think it's important to highlight that that it's it's very important when we discuss global global preparedness and response to to infectious diseases that we have to stand behind it financially also and this means that high-income countries again bear a much bigger responsibility they should be bearing a much bigger responsibility and should be standing behind these programs because of course in low and middle-income countries we have less room of of actually guaranteeing the amount the amount of the amount of money that health systems needs and this is because of the other pressures that they're exposed to thank you so much Anna for that India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been touring his home state Gujarat where assembly elections are ongoing the hotly contested election holds significance for India the results will prove vital for another round of elections in big states next year and the 2024 national elections before becoming the prime minister Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat he and his party have projected Gujarat as a model for the country however state critics have stated that includes divisive politics based on religion and hyper nationalism the hill state Himachal Pradesh has already voted but the problems here are similar a lot of cited tax structure poor employment status and many other issues and concerns we joined by Pragya from Newsk Lake for more discussion on this issue welcome to the show Pragya crucial elections what is the picture looking like in Gujarat and Himachal yes there are crucial elections both for different reasons Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh you know in 2002 the BJP won its biggest victory margin ever in in Gujarat that was a few months after a massive you know communal program in which the victims are mostly the Muslims and that sort of set the tableau for what kind of politics Gujarat would have henceforth now in Himachal Pradesh the issues of course are slightly different Gujarat has 182 seats on which people have to elect a representative Himachal Pradesh has 68 it's a much smaller state it's a hilly state and it's also a state where unemployment is emerging as the biggest issue and as well as the corporate control over farming in particular the orchards where you know the BJP and the Congress have again been vying for power you know and there is a tendency to have one party replace the other in in Himachal so but Gujarat by contrast is a place where the BJP has installed itself as you can say the de facto power center in the state where they you know the election even now is all about whether the BJP can be unseated in Gujarat so that's basically the the basic framework of the election Gujarat which is also important because it's sort of like a showpiece state for the economic model that the Bharti Janta Party the BJP has been projecting for the center as well they say that the Gujarat model is a successful model for the economy and for the people and now we are finding that you know the Gujarat model is actually not that successful on many of the human development indices so the question is that will the will the people of Gujarat who have realized in many parts as the ground reporting shows that the model is not what it was set out to be what will how will it influence their voting is what we're going to see and Raghia can you also highlight some of the issues in these states that will be at the forefront of the elections so in Gujarat the primary issue is once again likely to be along different planes so for the first time we are seeing that there is a multi-cornered contest which means there's a triangular contest which is known in Indian electoral parlance which is that three parties are contesting this is not a very common feature in Gujarat it is a state which is you know typically ruled by two parties where there's one principal opposition party and there's a ruling party which has tended to be the BJP in recent past so now we have a new entrant the Ahmadmi party which according to some ground reports is making its presence felt this raises three important issues for three different parties for the Bahati janta party for the BJP if it does not perform well in this election which means that the 2002 performance will become the yardstick for it to do well where in the first past the post system if the margins smaller margins will ensure a larger number of victories for a ruling party right which is also trying to prove its popularity for the congress party now the congress party has been engaged in this very big march across the country which they're doing to spread a message of love and brotherhood as opposed to hatred which according to congress party is a way to fight the political message of the BJP which is Hindutva which is a hard right nationalism based on religious politics so if the BJP does not do very well in this context then it would be disappointed if the congress party on the other hand does not emerge as a second as a lead opposition party as a second runner up in the selection then there would be concerns not just for the party itself but also for national politics because the congress is the largest opposition on a national scale and it is supposed to be the party which leads all other parties into an alliance before or after the election in 2024 on the national scale so if it emerges as say the third party then that would be a very big disappointment for the congress and a big question mark for a future alliance which beats the BJP we have to remember that this time the people of Gujarat are not voting on the typical not you know we don't know about voting the election can always bring a surprise but they're not talking about just the usual issues that get talked about in Gujarat you know Gujarat is a border state very close to Pakistan and so it's been relatively possible to whip up sentiments along religious lines over there but this time people are raising issues such as the lack of development and progress in Gujarat the fact that the wages of the workers in Gujarat are lower very often lower than the national average and that the poorer states are performing better than Gujarat on even development indicators for example since 2005 the numbers show us that the number of children who go to school is actually not improving in Gujarat they're faring worse 40% of the children are malnourished in a state where you know which is actually topping the charts in terms of state income so these are the questions which are informing the election this time it is not about hindu versus muslims which is the kind of politics that the BJP tries to whip up some are saying that the congress party is being strategically silent in this election so that the BJP cannot level these hurl these charges at it but it's only when the election results are out that we'll find out. Thank you Pragya, thank you so much for joining us and that's all we have for today for more such stories and updates from around the world keep watching People's Dispatch.org you can also follow us on Facebook Instagram and Twitter