In the Red is a mini-series in the Suno India Show on the blood supply shortages in the country, particularly in rural India. The reporting for this series is supported by Turuga Foundation that awarded Menaka Rao the Narender Revelli National Media Fellowship, 2021.  Suno India’s Menaka Rao travelled to parts of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh to report on how the insufficient supply of blood in the blood bank hampers the health of people living in the district, particularly when there is just a single blood bank in the district. This is the first episode in the series. The next episode will focus on how the blood shortage affects those who have blood-related disorders such as thalassaemia and sickle cell disease. References Chronic Anemia - StatPearls - NCBI BookshelfThe clinical demand and supply of blood in India: A National level estimation studyTrends in maternal mortality in India over two decades in nationally representative surveys - PMCSee sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

In this episode of The Suno India Show, reporter Suryatapa Mukherjee speaks to Satya Bharti regarding the recent go-ahead by the National Medical Commission (NMC) allowing Indian students who were pursuing their medical degree in Ukraine to make use of the academic mobility option offered by Ukraine. This allows them to transfer to other universities to complete their education while their degree would be awarded by the parent Ukrainian university. Despite this, students say this announcement has barely offered any relief.  Additional reading  Medical students from Ukraine can continue in other countries: NMC | Education News,The Indian ExpressConcerns Over Health Ministry’s Scheme For Ukraine–Returned Students As It Mirrors Route Taken By Unscrupulous AgentsCan’t give MBBS students from Ukraine seats in India: Government   See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) and Tattle civic tech have created Uli, a machine learning tool that can be used on certain internet browsers to limit online gender based violence or OGBV. In this episode of The Suno India Show, host Suryatapa Mukherjee spoke to Tarunima Prabhakar, the research lead and co-founder at Tattle civic tech, Cheshta Arora, a researcher at CIS studying intersections between internet culture and society, and Brindaalakshmi K, a research and advocacy professional working at the intersection of gender, sexuality, human rights and technology.  We find out what is the need for Uli that social media platforms are not fulfilling and how it helps the tool’s target audience of gender-marginalised people who face daily abuse online. Uli Sulli Deals: No arrests a month on, as the women keep fighting for justice From Sulli Deals to Bulli Bai, how the police traces anonymous criminals online See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England, has the largest collection of Naga material culture in the world (around 6466 items), including the human remains of Naga ancestors. Anthropologists Dolly Kikon and Arkotong Longkumer have been working as part of a community-led initiative to ensure the return of the Naga ancestral remains to their rightful home in Nagaland. Through this project, Dolly and Arkotong say they are discovering how Indian mainland scholars have also used and abused Naga ancestral remains in similar ways and that some Indian museums continue to store them. In this episode of The Suno India Show, host Suryatapa Mukherjee spoke to Dolly and Arkotong to learn more about this path-breaking work. This is the first time that repatriation of ancestral human remains have been initiated in India and even Asia, for indigenous people. Dolly Kikon is a Senior Lecturer in the Anthropology and Development Studies Program at Melbourne University, and a Senior Research Associate at the Australia India Institute. Arkotong Longkumer is Senior Lecturer in Modern Asia at the University of Edinburgh, and Senior Research Fellow at the Kohima Institute in Nagaland. Morung Lecture XIV: Naga Ancestral Remains, Repatriation and Healing of the LandThe Unfinished Business of Colonialism: Naga Ancestral Remains and the Healing of the Land | MorungExpressCritical Changes | Pitt Rivers MuseumPitt Rivers Museum | Oxford and Colonialism  Working Towards Return with the Pitt Rivers Museum Return Reconcile Renew See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

Wular lake in Kashmir is a main source of livelihood for families who live by it. While the men are expected to go fishing, or even step out of the village for daily wage labour, the cleaning of the lake is considered the duty of women. Women go out in boats at the crack of dawn and deweed the lake every single day.  In this podcast, independent journalist Baseera Rafiqi speaks with the women who go to the lake everyday. Baseera who is a resident of Bandipora raises an important question - Why is it that only women are expected to do this work. She talks about how women’s work is invisible in the fishing industry.See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

Entertainment journalism platform Film Companion and media consulting firm Ormax Media conducted a study and released the O Womaniya report. It looks at the state of women in the industry onscreen as well as behind the scenes. It found that only 10% of heads of departments are women. It has collected various other data about women directors and editors, films passing the bechdel test, trailer talk times for women, etc. In this episode of The Suno India Show, host Suryatapa Mukherjee speaks to Film Companion’s Anupama Chopra and Ormax Media’s Shailesh Kapoor.  O Womaniya! O Womaniya! 2022 Adda | Anupama Chopra | Film Companion, Ormax Media, Prime Video See sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

In August 2022, the Network Contagion Research Institute and Rutgers University released a report saying that they have detected a community on Twitter that is promoting self-harm. These tweets have graphic photos with bloody depictions of self-harm. The use of some hashtags went up by 500% over the past 11 months, according to the report, despite reporting on it. World Suicide Prevention day falls on September 10. Suno India’s Menaka Rao spoke to  Shagufta Kamran, Director - Public Policy & Government at Twitter India on Twitter’s policy related such problematic content, and what measures are being taken to address harmful content including cyber bullying, targeted harassment, and also what they were doing using their platform to help prevent suicide in the country. References https://networkcontagion.us/wp-content/uploads/NCRI_Twitter-Report_8.29.pdfPreventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals, Update 2017. Geneva: World Health OrganizationIndia - Twitter Transparency CenterInside the Hindu IT Cell: The men who went online to protect godsInside the Hindu IT Cell – The men who went online to protect gods - The Suno India Show - Omny.fmBorn digital, Born free? A Socio-Legal Study on Young Women's Experiences of Online Violence in South IndiaNew Study Shows Shocking Scale of Abuse on Twitter Against Women Politicians in India – Amnesty International USAIndian female Twitter influencers’ perceptions of trolls | Humanities and Social Sciences CommunicationsTwitter's suicide & self-harm policyHow Twitter handles abusive behaviorSee sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

The World Suicide Day falls on September 10. As per the World Health Organisation, an estimated 703000 people die by suicide every year. The recent data from National Crime Records Bureau or NCRB recorded the highest levels of suicides in the country. Last year 1.64 lakh persons died by suicide- an increase of 7.2 percent from 2020. This is the first time in suicide rates in India has hit 12 per 100000 population since NCRB started collecitng data on suicides in 1967. Suno India’s Menaka Rao spoke to Dr Lakshmi Vijaykumar and Dr Soumitra Pathare. Dr Lakshmi is a psychiatrist renowned for her work on suicide prevention. She is a member of the WHO’s International Network for Suicide Research and Prevention. Dr Soumitra is a psychiatrist and director of Centre for Mental Health, Law and Policy. He has helped the government in drafting the Mental health Care Act 2017, which takes a rights based approach to mental health. References https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-suicide-prevention-day/2022Deaths by suicide highest ever in India in 2021, domestic problems biggest reason, shows NCRB dataSuicide numbers during the first 9-15 months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with pre-existing trends: An interrupted time series analysis in 33 countriesSuicide and suicide riskThe Sources of Parent-Child Transmission of Risk for Suicide Attempt and Deaths by Suicide in Swedish National Samples | American Journal of Psychiatry   Postpartum haemorrhage remains leading cause of maternal deaths in Kerala: ReportSee sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

On August 15, 11 convicts in the case relating to Bilkis Bano during the 2002 Gujarat Riots were released. The 11 convicts were serving life sentences, and the jail time was commuted. Bilkis was 21 years old and five months pregnant when she was gang-raped while fleeing riots. In this incident, her three-year-old daughter along with six others were killed.Menaka and Padmapriya DVL discuss the stringent remission policy, its fairness in the context of Bilkis Bano convicts, and remission and other reformative practices that should be available to more prisoners. We spoke to Anup Surendranath, Nikita Sonavane, and Mrinalini Ravindranath. Anup Surendranath teaches law at the National Law University, Delhi and is the executive director of Project 39 A- a criminal justice programme which works with death penalty convicts, and others. Nikita is the co-founder of the Criminal Justice and Police Accountability Project in Bhopal, while Mrinalini is the research head there. References Special Remission Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) (Module in ePrisons) Ministry of Home AffairsSection 435 in The Code Of Criminal Procedure, 1973Convicts in Bilkis Bano case came out on frequent parole as witnesses cited threats | Cities News,The Indian Express‘There is fear’: Muslim families flee village, take shelter in relief colony | Cities News,The Indian ExpressBilkis Bano Case : Supreme Court Erred In Holding That Gujarat Govt Has Power To Decide Remission - Sr Adv Rebecca JohnFrom Segregation to Labour, Manu’s Caste Law Governs the Indian Prison SystemSpecial Remission Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav (AKAM) (Module in ePrisons) Ministry of Home AffairsSee sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.

Revadi culture seems to be the buzzword in politics today. It started with a speech made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and now has been responded to by many leaders including Delhi Chief Minister, Arvind Kejriwal, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister, P Thiagarajan among others.  Suno India’s Suryatapa Mukherjee spoke to Dipa Sinha who teaches economics in Ambedkar University to understand the politics behind these debates. Dipa is actively involved in the Right to Food campaign and has worked with the Centre for Equity Studies and Public Health Research Network. She regularly writes on issues related to social justice.  References Election freebies: Supreme Court refers matter to three-judge benchRevisiting the S. Subramaniam Balaji vs Tamil Nadu judgmentSee sunoindia.in/privacy-policy for privacy information.