-IDROnline.org How did India’s Public Distribution System adapt during COVID-19 and what can other social protection schemes learn from it? Social Protection (SP) broadly refers to a set of policies and programmes aimed at protecting people against poverty, vulnerability, and social exclusion throughout their life. Over the last 15 years, India has witnessed a growth in rights-based entitlements and systemic reforms to build a more inclusive SP system. These encompass the Mid-Day...
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Briefing Note for Parliamentarians on Labour Law Reforms
-Press release by Working Peoples' Charter dated 21st September, 2020 Amidst the micro and macro-economic crisis of the last 5 years, the union government has aggressively pushed the agenda of labour law reforms -- purportedly to simplify India’s ‘complex’ labour legislations, improve the business environment, and augment growth and employment. These changes, driven primarily by the business fraternity, have been aimed at improving India’s ranking in the ‘Ease of Doing Business’...
More »Will farmers get a better deal after recent reforms? -Roshan Kishore
-Hindustan Times India has moved from a food-scarce economy to a net exporter of food. However, food production does not guarantee food security. Affordability is what matters. New Delhi: The government has announced major agricultural policy changes as part of the economic package it has unveiled in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. These include deregulation of farm foods from the Essential Commodities Act (ECA). Farmers have also been allowed to sell...
More »Excess stocks of the Food Corporation of India must be released to the poor -Jean Drèze
-The Indian Express Jean Dreze writes: Releasing food is all the more crucial as the emergency cash transfers proposed by the finance minister are likely to have severe limitations. How would you feel if a family were to let its weakest members starve, even as the house’s granary is full to the brim? That is what is happening in India today. Everyone knows that the country has large food stocks, and that some...
More »One state, one ration card: MP reforms its Aadhaar-enabled PDS, helps migrant workers -Milind Ghatwai
-The Indian Express Madhya Pradesh government has now found a solution. Under the Aadhaar-enabled PDS, the respective grain quota is given to the nominee after verification of his biometric details. It’s not uncommon for beneficiaries of the public distribution system (PDS) to miss out on their quota of monthly food grains for reasons ranging from disability to old age to failure of the biometric verification system. But the Madhya Pradesh government has now...
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