We continue to discriminate people

When a couple of same-sex marry, who is the husband and who is the wife? For want of an answer to this, our solicitor-general argued in Supreme Court that the landmark order in 2018, decriminalizing sexual life, is just that. “nothing more, nothing less”. Our society and values do not recognize the union it seems! The fight is going to be very long for the LGBTQ community to make their own deserved space and identity in India.

In Kerala, no one seemed to have shared an opinion. For a state, striving to make space for the LGBTQ community, we should be vociferous and demanding for the cause. Instead, we are focused on parochial politics. For weeks now, our brothers and sisters are in a street fight with police. As they bleed, hawkish media captures everything in detail for all of us to devour from our living room! Media picks ‘bites’ from all three sides, throw them at others for more ‘bites’, and more and more. Media is making the discourse vicious and evil, all in the name of the public good! This should stop, the discussion need not. The lady, who was abused a week ago by an ambulance driver attempted suicide. Who cares!

Kerala ranked poorly in the latest cleanliness ranking of states in India. We are still struggling to handle the waste that we generate. We need a massive behavioural change. It’s possible. We should not delay.

Working professionals who have returned to their villages in Kerala due to COVID-19 is making their own life, finding comfort in the limited means and access to everything they were used to elsewhere. Their spending capacity is there to be exploited. They got their internet connectivity fixed, data is flowing, equipped the house with furniture, caught up with the work and is now realizing that they are in for a long haul. What would they need now? Loungewear, home delivery of foods, packaged foods, fish, meat, gym, appliances, beer, liquor, the list is growing. Our entrepreneurs will find ways to cater to their needs.

It was news that we still discriminate people based on caste for access to public goods and services. Salons in Vattavada panchayat were refusing to attend people from a particular cast. But the panchayat intervened and opened a salon for all and closed everything else that is discriminating. You can read this here.

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