-The Indian Express India's 2005 Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) creates a justiciable "right to work" by promising up to 100 days of wage employment per year to all rural households whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. Employment is provided in public works projects at a stipulated wage. The Central government proposes to allow a greater share of the cost of projects under the scheme to...

-The Hindu Business Line The number of people commuting between rural and urban areas and across geographies has risen dramatically In the last couple of decades, the number of people commuting between rural and urban areas on a daily basis has seen an explosive growth. This includes unskilled workers without a fixed place of work. According to the National Sample Survey Organisation, between 1993-94 and 2009-10, India saw a nearly fourfold increase (from...

-The Week Shambhu Kumar, 8, quite liked his job as a domestic help in a small town in Assam. He had to mind two children nearly his age, keep an eye on the ducks and be available for chores all day. It wasn't too hard, and he was well fed, too, though he missed his grandmother, a tea garden labourer. One day, some women from the state education department came to the...

-The Hindu The new system is less labour-intensive, requires less input and less seed Warangal (Telengana): Agricultural scientists in the district have introduced and popularised ‘aerobic system of rice cultivation' wherein a farmer can directly sow the seed like any other crop. The system is less labour-intensive, needs less input and less seed. At a demonstration programme held at Reddypuram on Sunday, a local farmer's crop which was grown using the ‘aerobic system'...

-Outlook In addition to amending the Rules of the Forest Rights Act, greater attention needs to be paid to changing the Land Acquisition Act   There is no explicit provision in the Forest Rights Act, 2006 for obtaining permission of the Gram Sabha for diversion of forest lands to non-forest purposes. However, Section 4(5) of the Act prevents government to evict any forest dweller unless the recognition process as provided in the...