-The Hindu The national framework to improve nutrition for children must be upgraded on priority The health, longevity and well-being of Indians has improved since Independence, and the high levels of economic growth over the past two-and-half-decades have made more funds available to spend on the social sector. Yet, the reality is that a third of the world’s stunted children under five — an estimated 46.6 million who have low height for...

-Livemint.com The recent Chhath festival in Bihar saw a visible thinning of the workforce in Kerala, clearly the ground zero of India’s mass labour movement Eroor (Ernakulam): Oh, I miss Vicky!,” Ravi says, in Malayalam, as he rolls up his sleeves. He is walking quickly back to his house from a protest—that quintessential Kerala activity. Breathing in the pungent chemicals of Kochi’s industrial belt in Eroor as he walks, Ravi (who did...

-CNBCTV18.com * The All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee mobilised a farmers’ movement in a year. * The trigger was a June 2017 farmers’ agitation in Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh, where six people died in the midst of violence and police shootings. * In 12 months, the AIKSCC has managed to drive the convergence of farmer groups, including those representing marginalised farmers (women, adivasis and Dalits), apart from the introduction of two Bills. “Farmer...

-The Hindu A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking its intervention to bring dignity to “India’s invisible workforce in the informal sector” — the domestic workers. The petition filed by NGO Common Cause along with social activist Aruna Roy and the National Platform for Domestic Workers, said: “Latent classism and lack of education make domestic workers prone to violence and abuse at the hands of their employers and placement...

-Newsclick.in A combination of fund squeeze and political aversion has deprived lakhs of people from getting MGNREGS work, even though wages are very low. As the job crisis rages unabated across the country, demand for work under the rural jobs guarantee programme (MGNREGS – Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act) has risen dramatically in the past few years. In Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, the two big states where polling for Assembly...