-IndiaSpend.com Chandigarh: With thousands of migrants who had left Uttarakhand for greener pastures returning amid the lockdown, the state government is trying to convince them to stay on and rebuild their lives there, offering interest-free loans, subsidies and free electricity to set up eco-tourism and micro-enterprises. The state government has also added an additional budget for Employment-generating schemes such as the Veer Chandra Garhwali Yojana, which offers micro credit aimed to...

-Vikalp.ind.in When the entire country is under a lockdown and many economic activities stopped, thousands of unemployed workers are returning to their home states due to lack of money and food. In such a situation, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) could have played a very important role in generating income and demand in the economy. However, the official data available from the MGNREGS website of the Ministry...

-TheWire.in While most of the laws may not be strictly enforced, does that justify doing away with them completely? In the last week, several important labour laws, meant to safeguard the welfare of the workers and ensure industrial safety, have been “suspended” for a few years in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. Although the orders put out by each state government have their own tweaks and variations, these decisions collectively come with...

-Vikalp.ind.in Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. of India has amalgamated all the existing social security legislations into a Code. The proposed draft Code on Social Security is presently being referred to Parliamentary Standing Committee on Labour for examination. This commentary highlights the salient features of the proposed code and discusses the areas of improvement and concerns.   After considerable period of deliberations and consultations, the union government has circulated the draft...

-The Indian Express The Act was enacted to prevent the exploitation of inter-state migrant workmen by contractors, and to ensure fair and decent conditions of Employment. The fallout of the lockdown in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 highlights the urgent need to rationalise the legislative framework for labour in India. Migrant labour has been among the worst affected due to the lockdown. Their efforts to leave the cities before the...