-The Hindu Census shows that the bulk of rural households subsist on very low incomes Around 73 per cent of households in India are rural, according to the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) data released by the government on Friday. Of these, 18.5 per cent and scheduled caste households and 11 per cent belong to the scheduled tribe category. The SECC, jointly released by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Rural Development,...
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The digging-holes myth -Jean Dreze
-The Indian Express The view of MGNREGA as a makeshift work programme is far off the mark. Few social programmes in India are more resented by the corporate sector than the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). This is easy to understand, considering that one of the primary aims of the MGNREGA is to empower workers and reduce their dependence on private employers. Naturally, employers see this as a threat...
More »Govt. targets food security of the poorest, most vulnerable
Is the Government stepping back from its responsibility under the National Food Security Act (NFSA) by giving technical reasons? Civil society organizations, which struggled to enact the Right to Food legislation, doubt that this may be the case. It has been alleged recently by several civil society activists that the Government is rolling back the Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), which is meant for food security of the extremely poor households,...
More »Dignified alternative -Harsh Mander
-The Hindu Far from being ‘useless’, the MNREGA helps the impoverished and resilient poor earn a decent living. Famously on the floor of Parliament, Prime Minister Modi dismissed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) as a ‘living monument’ of the previous governments’ failures, condemning millions of impoverished people to survive by ‘digging ditches’. This spring near Bhim in Rajasthan, I had the rare experience of labouring on an MGNREGA site....
More »Anganwadi Workers Not Paid Salaries for 4 Months, Says Union
-PTI Mumbai: The Maharashtra Anganwadi Sevika Union has alleged that the state government has not paid salaries of its workers for the last four months. "For last four months, we have not been paid our salaries. We met Rural Development Minister Pankaja Munde and Finance Minister Mungantiwar several times. But they say the government has no money to pay our dues," Anganwadi Sevika Union general secretary Kamal Parulekar alleged. If Ms Munde can...
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