-The Hindu The Government’s consistent ‘no data’ declarations on important issues are a critical part of a larger political project It can be safely assumed that the popular American dictum, “In God we trust; all others must bring data”, is unlikely to be found in any office of the Narendra Modi government. There is mounting evidence to show that either the Government has ‘no data’ about issues that show it in a...

-CaravanMagazine.in ASHA workers demand hikes, regularisation and health insurance amid COVID-19 An ASHA—accredited social health activist—is a community-health worker, instituted by the union ministry of health and family welfare as a part of India's National Rural Health Mission. The ASHAs were primarily meant to help rural and semi-urban communities gain access to health-related services. According to the health ministry's recent data, there are at least 10,22,265 ASHAs in the country. During the...

-The Hindu It could be a long wait before employers and workers enjoy the so-called benefits extended by the labour codes The National Democratic Alliance government enacted the Code on Wages in August 2019 and the other three Codes, viz., the Industrial Relations Code, the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code and Code on Social Security (CSS) in September 2020. Later, it had framed the draft rules albeit incompletely under all...

-The Hindu Almost 50% of teachers vaccinated. At least 14 States and Union Territories have reopened or plan to reopen schools partially this month, given the continued low numbers of COVID-19 infection and the high rate of vaccination among teachers. However, almost all States only plan to bring back older students despite the Indian Council of Medical Research’s recommendation to start with primary school students. At a Health Ministry press conference on Tuesday,...

The pandemic's first wave had a devastating impact on the livelihoods of rural workers in Bihar (including the self-employed) last year, according to a survey based research, jointly done by economists from Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability at Monash University, Australia and the New Delhi-based Institute for Human Development. A recent press note issued by the authors of the study shows that almost 94.4 percent of the households participating...