-TheIndiaForum.in The unequal labour market in India would have seen a widening of disparities after Covid-19 struck. Those at the bottom, with few skills, limited education & without security, would have been affected the most; they are the ones in immediate need of support. The widespread loss of jobs and incomes following the dual shocks of the pandemic and the lockdown have generated much concern. What is particularly worrying is that the...

-The Indian Express Even though Adityanath announced more than once that needy people will get ration even without a ration card, the fact is that the returnee migrant labourers who don’t have ration cards or their names have been struck off from ration cards because they were not staying in their village, are neither getting the regular quota of ration nor the free quota made available during the coronavirus crisis period. In...

-Deccan Herald Children’s participation in agricultural sub-sectors has become hazardous work. We need nuanced, cross-sectoral interventions to prevent child labour in pastoralism. The Indian case for child labour in pastoralism has been adequately overlooked, despite agriculture and its various branches being the largest employer of child labour. The Centre for Pastoralism estimates that there are 35 million pastoralists across India, with most of them living in austere and inhospitable regions, ranging from the...

Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...

-The Indian Express The state's massive exercise to prepare a database of returning migrant workers nears completion, provides detailed profile of workforce as government seeks to connect them with potential employers. As the Uttar Pradesh government nears the end of its massive exercise to profile the skills of over 30 lakh migrant workers who have returned following the outbreak of the coronavirus epidemic, analysis of the data has revealed the extent both...