 Hello and let's talk about the case of 57 girls testing positive for COVID-19 in a shelter home in Kanpur. Five of these girls are pregnant and one is HIV positive. The news came to light over the weekend and has caused outrage both in the state and across the country. The National Human Rights Commission has issued notices to the authorities concerned. Media reports say that the shelter home was overcrowded, raising questions of how proper health and safety measures could have been enacted in such facilities. We talked to journalist Sarab Sharma on this issue. Thank you so much Sarab for talking to us. So could we first start by talking a bit about what the situation on the ground is especially after the news has broken out. Has the government taken any measures because we do know that various state bodies have written to the government. They've taken notice of this issue. They demand an explanation. So right now is the government taking any steps on this regard? Yes. Yes. The government has started working on this as soon as the news broke that 57 inmates out of 471. So let me make it clear that the shelter home was already overcrowded. And after 57 of the inmates including seven pregnant whose case were under trial in the POCSO Act protection of children from sexual offense. So right now the shelter home has been sealed by the government. All of the infected girls were inmates have been sent to the hospitals and today I got to know from the official sources in Kanpur that one of the girl infected girls has been shifted to an L1 category hospital and others are quarantined and at the hospitals. Now the DM has also ordered the CWC to bring in all the papers. They are doing the scooting of the papers and this is actually what is happening on the ground right now. There has been an outrage politically opposition have demanded that there should be a probe that many people including politicians like Akhilesh Yadav who was the former chief minister of Puttapatesh, Priyanka Gandhi and others. They have suspected that there could be a Muzaffarpur kind of angle into this. But as of now what I could see and verify independently, I don't see any that kind of angle. But things are in pipeline you know the investigation is on by the administration and other bodies. So we can't draw any conclusion at all. Right, absolutely. And how is this a general reflection of the way or is this at all a general reflection of the way the disease has been handled in the state because this was clearly building up for over some time. I don't think so that this could be a reflection but yes it shows laxity on the side of the government. The government was saying rather I would say it was bragging that they have made good arrangements at the shelter home. They have given screening thermometers, had made them available sanitize and other stuff. But the question remains that how did these inmates got the infection. I was told by the district probation officer that the infection is a case of local transmission and anyone of the infected 57 inmates could have transmitted it while going to the hospital or coming back from that. But the question is like why were these inmates not screened when they returned from the hospital or from the other places they have visited to. So yes I would like change my statement yes this could be a reflection of how the state is handling this COVID-19 crisis. Absolutely. And could you talk a bit about the general situation of the disease in Kanpur itself? Kanpur is the second worst affected district in Uttar Pradesh after Noida. Kanpur is more than 400 cases and every day we can see more than 10, 20, 30 people are getting infected due to it. So the local transmission is actually happening. Maybe the government will not accept it but yes it is happening and there is a need to bring in some special strategy for districts like Kanpur, Meerut and Noida. Otherwise you know what is going to be and what impact it will make is that the healthcare sector is already on the ventilators in Uttar Pradesh and due to that non-COVID patients will also suffer. And in this context has there been any so as far as the government is concerned regarding its COVID-19 strategy has there been any sort of clarity on what are the key steps that are being taken as far as public receiving this information is concerned? See the government is not making any of such information public. The officers do not talk on phone they hardly reply but the press notes which we receive they say we have formed these number of quarantine centers in these districts these number of people have been sent to institutional quarantine and we have like given these much of thermometers on other things nothing has been done on expertise level. Could you explain a bit more what you mean by expertise level? Expertise level like they made a strategy in Agra to contain the cases the Agra model was even applauded by the leaders nationally and there was they stopped the containment of virus the contraction of virus in the areas and this situation was brought under control in time it took some time but it was brought under control but in place in even in Naudal so that district magistrates was shunted and Suha Selvi was made the DM then the borders were logged and a lot of measures were taken but in Kanpur I don't think so any of these things are happening people are easily moving even from the containment zone I was in Kanpur a day before and I saw how easily the people were moving. Absolutely. Sweet. Thank you so much for talking to us. Thank you. Thank you sir. In our second segment we bring you a part of an interview with Crade Unionist Jammu Anand on the occasion of the UN public service day which is on June 23rd that's today he talks about the significance of this day and the demands of unions in relation to it. Yes, could I start by asking about the importance of this day itself in the context you're working in in the Indian context so what is the relevance of this day? I think after this lockdown has been clamped and the way the health sector has been exposed so somehow I think it is a coincidence also that somehow the society at large is now looking at the public services and the importance of public services and being today is the international public services day it is of paramount importance not only for the trade unions not only for the workers who are engaged in the public services but society at large because the crippling public services is a net reflection implication of the new globalized policies the government of India pursuing and persuaded since 1992 and because the whole sector as a public service sector which has been abandoned by the governments and today the reflection of the manifestation of negligence of public sector in the health sector is concerned that is being seen because of the COVID-19. Absolutely, right and in this context what are the key demands that unions are making especially because like you said COVID-19 has exposed a lot of fault lines in society so we do see that while public sector public service employees are seen as very important often they're not paid well many of them work in very poor conditions many of them are not even given the status of formal employees so what are the key demands that for instance your union or your sector is making to governments both at the central and state level? Unfortunately before I come on that just quickly I will try to map up you see the local bodies of this country is one institution which is mandated constitutionally to provide public services whether it is education whether it is health whether it is waste disposal whether it is water whether it is transport unfortunately after 2005 we see systematically one after another public services of the local bodies have been privatized other than local bodies of course the electricity is one which is a public service that has also been not entirely privatized but dismantled and now the new bill with the government want to pass and the government is very much hurry so whatever little left in electricity that is also going to help now the city in which I come it is a laboratory for privatization of public services my local body as on date not a single public service is being owned by the local body everything has been either outsourced went into PPP model or privatized so the net reflection is everything has collapsed looking at the covid-19 because of this corona virus our public health system has come to the center stage of this country people at large are looking at these status the health the condition of public health system so it is very glaring it is very shameless situation we as the union since long back we're demanding to invest in public sector services we were the unions demanded demanding for improving the public service we were the union claiming that public institutions are capable institution to provide more qualitative effective people friendly public services no other public institution can do justice as far as public services concern but new globalization policies persuaded by one after another government which came into power have sold these public services sector have opened up these public service sector for the private place and today what is happening profit is being made supreme profit is being put forward then the concern of the people that's all we have in this episode let's talk we'll be back tomorrow with the latest news developments of the day until then keep watching news click