-TheWire.in Despite the fact that India's financial inclusion infrastructure has a complex mix of self-help groups and small private banks offering credit to the poor, it has failed to deliver during the pandemic. When the pandemic struck, policymakers and prominent economists across the world called for financial infrastructures to be strengthened. They argued this would support the efficient channeling of relief through cash transfers or cheap loans. India was no exception to...
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The state of India’s poor must be acknowledged -Seema Chishti
-The Hindu This is ‘abject poverty’, and if the economy is to be repaired, the number of the poor has to be meticulously counted The son of a corn merchant-turned sociologist, Charles Booth had little patience for Charles Dickens and others in his time, who used lyrical prose to describe the desperation of the poor in working class London. Booth was also angry, in 1885, over the claims made by F.D. Hyndman,...
More »With 45% of Indians excluded from the food security net, it’s time to univeralise the PDS -Swati Narayan
-Scroll.in Poverty is growing, thanks to the Covid-19 economic slowdown. It’s time for the Centre to provide subsidised foodgrains to most Indians. Have you ever closely watched ants foraging for food in the kitchen with remarkable ingenuity, teamwork and dedication? They meticulously gather food – crumbs and grains of sugar – to re-distribute to the entire colony. In addition, they store excess morsels to tide over future shortages. Bees are equally industrious....
More »COVID pushed men into informal labour, women out of workforce: study -Priscilla Jebaraj
-The Hindu Remigration of young, trained workers Bihar, Jharkhand workers at minimal levels A survey of young, semi-skilled migrants from rural Bihar and Jharkhand in April 2021 has found that last year’s lockdown led to an informalisation of labour among men, while most of the women simply dropped out of the work force altogether. It also found that the number of out-of-State migrants halved between March 2020 and 2021, with no net effect...
More »Covid has pushed seasonal sugarcane cutters in Maharashtra’s Beed to the brink of poverty -Diksha Munjal and Tanishka Sodhi
-Newslaundry.com Daily wage work has dried up and there’s no help forthcoming from the government. The narrow lanes cutting through farmland are dotted with brick, wood and asbestos shanties. One in particular, located in Dhakephal village in Maharashtra’s Beed district, is lit by a single yellow bulb. It’s home to Swati Sriganga Ramdave, 24, and her family of seven. Outside the house, Swati’s youngest daughter Aarohi, 4, tugged at her grandmother Gitabai’s sari,...
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