-Economic and Political Weekly The continuing deaths of infants and children due to malnutrition in Attappady, the only tribal block in Kerala, reflects the state government's apathy towards addressing issues germane to the tribals residing in the region. Manikandan A.D (alungal09@gmail.com) is a PhD candidate at School of International Relations and Politics, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, and ICSSR Institutional Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Nizamiah...

-Outlook Lucknow: Taking note of media reports and state-level reviews over the delay in clearance of wages under the rural job scheme, Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has written a letter to Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav urging him to ensure prompt payments. The letter, dated January 8, states that it has been mentioned in the law that payments under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) have...

-The Hindu India is the world's largest open air lavatory with over 620 million people practising open defecation in the country. Seeking to address this persisting problem, the UPA government has widened the scope of its flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to include works relating to rural sanitation in collaboration with the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyaan (NBA) Scheme. This interlinking is aimed at strengthening the base of rural...

-The Hindu "Make Pravasi Baratiya Divas more democratic, inclusive" Representatives of migrant, domestic worker and human rights organisations, besides trade unions, held a demonstration at Jantar Mantar here on Tuesday to demand that the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) be made more democratic, representative and inclusive. Stating that the PBD should be made a platform for discussing the problems of labour diaspora and that its agenda should include issues of migrant workers, the protestors...

-The Hindu Business Line     Whatever the criticisms against the UPA government may be, its effort to provide employment to large sections of the population under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act must be lauded. Yet, after the initial success of the scheme, the enthusiasm of the Central government itself seems to have diminished in its second term in power. How palpable is the shift to lower gear? Representatives of the UPA...