-IANS There is an urgent need for recognising people engaged in domestic work within an employment relationship as workers and to bring them under labour Legislation, said Tine Staermose, Director India, International Labour Organisation (ILO), Wednesday. "There is a urgent need for the recognition of the people engaged in domestic work within an employment relationship as workers and to bring them under the labour Legislation so they can access services and benefits...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The draft national policy on domestic workers, awaiting the Union Cabinet's nod, must be approved at the earliest. Activists and NGOs echoed this view at a panel discussion on Wednesday. "A national policy is the first step towards ensuring rights for domestic workers. It is also the first step before Legislation is enacted. But despite our persistent efforts, progress is so slow," said Varghese Theckanath, convenor,...

-Reuters   The number of maids has surged by close to 70% from 2001 to 2010, says the ILO New Delhi: Millions of maids working in middle class Indian homes are part of up an informal and "invisible" workforce where they are abused and exploited due to a lack of Legislation to protect them, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Wednesday. Economic reforms that began in the early 1990s have transformed the...

-The Indian Express Pre-legislative scrutiny is a first step towards greater transparency in law-making. The committee of secretaries chaired by the cabinet secretary has decided that all bills proposed by the government should go through a process of pre-legislative scrutiny. This follows the recommendation of the National Advisory Council, which had suggested that all bills be taken through this process in order to garner public feedback at an early stage. Let us quickly...

-Down to Earth Four-day world congress on agroforestry in Delhi pushes for accelerating growing trees on farms for sustainable agriculture and mitigating climate change impacts In what is seen as a ground-breaking move, India has become the first nation in the world to adopt an agroforestry policy. The National Agroforestry Policy, which deals with the practice of integrating trees, crops and livestock on the same plot of land, was launched February 10,...