-The Indian Express Modi government has damaged the rights-based legislative framework without spelling out what will replace it. No  one in the last two decades has come to power with greater euphoria than the Narendra Modi sarkar. It has taken less than a year for that euphoria to recede and change to disappointment. There are sufficient reasons for this change. The celebrations of the first year in office of  this government are in sharp...

-Hindustan Times A dominant feature of the first year of Narendra Modi's leadership is the quiet dismantling of India's imperfectly realised framework of welfare and rights, covertly, by stealth.   A declared pro-corporate agenda, such as the land acquisition ordinance, proved politically messy and costly. Therefore, the government resorted instead for an enfeebling of the welfare architecture of the country through a combination of fiscal withdrawals, ignoring even legally mandated obligations.   But this attracted...

-The Indian Express Without better quality schooling, attempts to curb child labour can only go so far. The Union cabinet has cleared amendments to the child labour act, introducing stricter penalties on employers, outlawing all work done by children below 14 and banning children from doing any hazardous work — up from an existing list of 18 hazardous industries and processes. However, it makes an exception: children are allowed to help in...

-The Indian Express Exceptions justified to ‘balance need for education, socio-economic reality’. While prohibiting employment of children below the age of 14, the Centre decided Wednesday to let them work in family enterprises and in the audio-visual entertainment industry, except the circus, provided their school education is not affected. The government justified the exceptions to strike “a balance between the need for education for a child and reality of the socio-economic condition...

-Tehelka The amendments also make it clear that children between 14 and 18 years will also not be allowed to work in hazardous industries. The Union Cabinet on 13 May cleared a change in the Child Labour Act which said children below 14 years of age can work in non-hazardous industries and too during holidays or after school hours. The changes in labour law provide for stricter punishment for employers for violation. While...