-The Hindu Wages to the tune of Rs.53.8 crore are yet to be paid in State Vijayawada; Frequent changes in wage disbursal methods and technical glitches, coupled with government apathy, have deprived 8.6 lakh porters of their hard-earned wages worth Rs.53.8 crore in the 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). “Factors that stand between the workers and their wages range from failure of the...

-The Hindu More than a ‘more jobs’ approach, addressing structural issues which keep women away from the workforce is a must India is in the middle of a historical election which is noteworthy in many respects, one of them being the unprecedented focus on women’s employment. The major national parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress, have reached out to women, and their respective manifestos talk of measures to create more...

-The Hindu Business Line Distracted by elections, the country’s alarming water crisis has been overlooked As India’s water crisis gets visibly worse with every passing summer, it is clear that the bureaucracy and policymakers are not working to find immediate and long-term solutions. This time, the apathy seems to have worsened due to the ongoing elections. In Maharashtra and Kerala, for instance, the administrations have taken refuge in the ‘model code of...

-The Indian Express Congress manifesto should have promised better implementation of MGNREGA instead of another scheme In its previous ruling stint in New Delhi, the Congress’s flagship social welfare programme was MGNREGA, which provides 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled Manual Work. For its next shot at power, the grand old party is promising to implement a...

-The Telegraph The most important implication of underfunding the MGNREGA is that the NDA denies that there is a jobs crisis Given the fact that a significant amount of jobs has been lost by casual rural workers in the recent past, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act gains added significance. It is supposed to provide 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every adult in a household...