-The Indian Express The MGNREGA promises 100 days of employment every year to each rural household. The Act mandates that at least a third of the workers under the scheme should be women. The flagship rural job guarantee scheme may have succeeded in ensuring that a significant proportion of its workforce comprises of women, but it has failed to bridge the gender gap and include women in a holistic way, a...

-The Times of India Though laws mandate creches, daycare is like a dream for unorganized labourers. A house is being built in Vasant Vihar, one of the many plots in the neighbourhood under construction. Men and wom en are hard at work. On the ground floor, two-year-old Jitin has been standing by a plastic can for a long, long time. A string around his ankle tethers him to a table. "He could hurt...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government plans to bring in a regulatory framework to rein in play schools, creches and day care centres' charging exorbitant fees without providing standardized curriculum and learning aids. The policy, which includes implementation and monitoring of early child care and education for children below six years, is likely to be discussed in the Union Cabinet on Thursday. The women and child development (WCD) ministry...

-Down to Earth Only 25 days of work provided per family as against the guaranteed 100 days of work; wages paid late in 55 per cent cases District administrations in rural West Bengal are resorting to innovative ways in their hurry to spend funds allocated under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (MNREGS). In the Maoist-affected West Midnapore district, petty contractors are doing the earth work earmarked for MNREGS with...

-The Hindu To address the rights issue and the skewed sex ratio, girl child-friendly policies get an extra thrust in the 12 Plan document, to be approved formally by this month-end The 12 Plan document of the Planning Commission, to be formally approved this month-end, has recommended setting up of a high level inter-ministerial committee on ‘Care and Protection of the Girl Child’ which will constitute the institutional mechanism for mobilising and...