-VillageSquare.in Lakhs of rural Rajasthan migrants returned easily during lockdown since they worked in neighboring Gujarat. However, with no local employment avenues, the urban exodus would start again Udaipur (Rajasthan): Naresh from Kalunda village in the Gogunda region of Udaipur district works at a furniture factory in Rajkot in the neighboring state of Gujarat. He stays in Rajkot for up to eight months a year, earning a salary of Rs 8,000 per...

-The Telegraph The economic distress caused by unilaterally imposed lockdowns has brought the focus back on the rural job programme Narendra Modi’s cocky statement in Parliament in 2015 about the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act being a monumental failure of the Congress regime may have been a political jibe, but it showed that the government had no intention of boosting a programme which, since its inception, has suffered from the...

-ANI/ The New Indian Express "We want workers to safely return and resume work. A bus takes 72 hours to reach Surat while the train takes 42 hours. If they return, it will be very helpful for us," Ashish Gujarati said. SURAT: Businessmen have claimed that the textile industry in Surat is facing a shortage of workers as they have not returned in the absence of transport services. Hence, they are trying...

-Hindustan Times Expanding better opportunities with decent wages for frontline workers could also contribute to the revival of the rural economy by putting wages into the hands of many, and take us closer to achieving our health and nutrition goals The unsung heroes of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic have most definitely been the millions of frontline women workers, especially Accredited Social Health Activists (Ashas) who have been working tirelessly at...

-Down to Earth These communities have suffered on most social indicators due to a mix of poor logistics as well as prejudice and ostracisation   Dalit, Muslim and Adivasi households and neighbourhoods have suffered terribly in the aftermath of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in the months following the declaration of the countrywide lockdown, data collected by a group of civil society organisations has showed. These communities were not able to avail...