Non-payment of MGNREGA wages on time to workers and non-revision of daily wage rates, among other things, have kept the poor away from the programme in many states. When the notified daily wage rates under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (2005) Act (MGNREGA) for 2019-20 was announced on 26th March 2019, it became clear that the existing wage rates were not revised (viz. as compared to 2018-19) in...
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India's new compensatory afforestation rules dilute rights of forest dwellers -Mayank Aggarwal
-Mongabay.com * India’s environment ministry has notified the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Rules 2018 to ensure proper utilisation of Rs 660 billion for plantation of trees across India. * Environmentalists and civil society groups are against the rules as they point out that the rules ignore the rights of forest dwellers and tribals. They also said that the new CAF rules are against existing laws ensuring forest rights and self governance for...
More »227 villages in three districts of Rajasthan declared Schedule Areas -Ishan Kukreti
-Down to Earth This new development will benefit the scheduled tribes residing in Banswara, Dungarpur, Pratapgarh The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister on Wednesday (April 25) approved the declaration of 227 villages in three districts of Rajasthan as Schedule Areas. The declaration of Scheduled Areas under Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of India was done by rescinding the Constitution Order 114 of February 12, 1981 and promulgating a new Constitution...
More »Odisha tribal organisations protest against draft CAF Rules -Ishan Kukreti
-Down to Earth The protests are in opposition to the vague position of the Rules on forest-dwelling communities in the compensatory afforestation process The draft Compensatory Afforestation Fund Rules, 2018, notified by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) on February 16, have sparked protests by tribal organisations in Odisha. The protests are due to the fact that the Rules are vague on the role of communities in...
More »Criminalising Forest-Dwellers Has Not Helped India's Forests or Wildlife. It's Time for a New Deal -Meenal Tatpati and Sneha Gutgutia
-TheWire.in Instead of evicting forest-dwelling communities for engaging in traditional activities in protected areas and reserved forests, the government should use them for co-management. In a circular released on March 28, 2017, the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) ordered the directors of all tiger reserves to refrain from recognising the rights of forest dwellers within critical tiger habitats. Since its enactment in 2006, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of...
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