-The Hindu   Even decades after independence, the introduction of a ‘secret ballot' for labourers to recognise trade unions remains elusive The National Democratic Alliance government, on June 5 and June 17, notified the proposed amendments to the Factories Act, 1948 and the Minimum Wages Act, 1948. Given that the process of amendments began in 2008 and went through a number of expert committees, one would have expected the amendments to be carefully...

-One World South Asia/ Women's Feature Service This is a success story. The backdrop: a small, dusty village in Madhya Pradesh; the protagonists: oppressed dalit women, who managed to shed their inhibitions and overcome centuries old caste and class baggage to save their children from the curse of hunger and severe malnutrition. Mundalana village in Sonkatch block of Dewas district is home to 800 dalits, out of a total population of 2,600. Owing...

-The Times of India RAJKOT: Gulab Singh Budhel, a tribal living in Amreli's Luvava village, and his seven family members packed their bags on Wednesday to leave for Kutch in search for construction labour work. With a spectre of drought looming large over Saurashtra and crops having failed already, Budhel has no choice but to leave. "Survival is becoming tougher as no farmer is lending us money because of delayed monsoon and...

-The Hindu   6,494 children, 53 per cent of them girls, disappeared from January 1 to December 31, 2013 It has been a year and four months since her 13-year-old daughter Rosie went missing from their home in North-West Delhi and even today when Nasima Khatun recounts the tale her eyes well up. The girl was alone at home while her three siblings were at work and school that day, said Ms. Khatun, who...

-The Hindu   Unlike the success story of the tea stall owner who became Prime Minister, there are many others whose dreams have been forgotten. But their lives have been rebuilt by MGNREGA Right next to the village home in Devdungri, Rajsamand, Rajasthan where I lived and worked with Mazdoor Kisan Shakthi Sangathan from 1998, live Chiman Singh and his wife Meera. Both of them used to migrate to Ahmedabad for six months...