-The Indian Express These are some of the findings mentioned in a report prepared by Jharkhand’s Social Audit Unit, under the Rural Development Department, created to “promote transparency and accountability in implementation of the programs”. Ranchi: FORTY-EIGHT per cent people did not receive full two months’ ration, as promised by the Jharkhand government during the lockdown period. Out of 1,255 families inspected, which had pregnant/lactating women or children below five years of...

-The Indian Express That’s the actual liquidity pumped into rural areas by government post lockdown &NDAsh; through grain procurement, PM-Kisan and MGNREGA wages. There are many parallels one can draw between the novel coronavirus-induced lockdown (gharbandi) and demonetisation (notebandi), in terms of their impact on India’s farm economy. Both resulted in the same thing &NDAsh; demand destruction &NDAsh; albeit through different routes. Notebandi caused a haemorrhaging of liquidity from the predominantly cash-based farm...

-TheWire.in Unlike China which supported productivity-enhancing R&D investments, India’s focus has been on politically-driven subsidies that mainly benefit large farmers. We saw the trailer two years ago. TV news visuals of the plight of thousands of rural poor marching to Mumbai shocked the relatively affluent residents of India’s financial capital. The March 2018 Maharashtra farmers’ march and now the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown-triggered migrant exodus has exposed the stark duality of India &NDAsh;  an...

-TwoCircles.net Centre for Equity Studies has released a report on the migrant crisis documenting how India’s most vulnerable class has suffered due to the unplanned national lockdown by the Central government for COVID-19. The report titled ‘Labouring Lives: Hunger, Precarity and Despair amid Lockdown’ addressed vital questions of how the country’s labouring class &NDAsh; stranded and jobless &NDAsh; coped with the lockdown living away from their homes. The research has been conducted...

-Newsclick.in Meals distributed in anganwadi centres and schools petered out as the Modi government had made no plans for continuing the programmes during the lockdown. The world’s two biggest child nutrition programmes &NDAsh; the ICDS or Integrated Child Development Scheme and the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) programme &NDAsh; run by the Indian government suffered a severe jolt in March and April this year as foodgrain allocated for them was not made available during...