-The Hindu On the contrary, scrapping labour laws will only reduce wages, lower earnings and reduce consumer demand Following the adage, “never waste a crisis”, the government of Uttar Pradesh, last week, introduced an ordinance that has scrapped most labour laws for three years — ostensibly for creating jobs and for attracting factories exiting China following the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. These laws deal with the occupational safety, health and working...

-The Indian Express The draft proposes that the land pooling model which is used in building greenfield airports can be used in agriculture to enable corporatisation, which will create demand for skilled labourers. A LAND pooling model enabling corporatisation of agriculture, opening up EPF and ESIC for the unorganised sector, merging the MNREGA with skill development programmes to create a wage subsidy programme —- these are some of the proposals that have...

-Vikalp.ind.in When the entire country is under a lockdown and many economic activities stopped, thousands of unemployed workers are returning to their home states due to lack of money and food. In such a situation, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) could have played a very important role in generating income and demand in the economy. However, the official data available from the MGNREGS website of the Ministry...

-The Indian Express The Act was enacted to prevent the exploitation of inter-state migrant workmen by contractors, and to ensure fair and decent conditions of employment. The fallout of the lockdown in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 highlights the urgent need to rationalise the legislative framework for labour in India. Migrant labour has been among the worst affected due to the lockdown. Their efforts to leave the cities before the...

-Hindustan Times As migrant workers continue to be the worst-hit owing to the Covid-19 lockdown, the call for re-imagining migrant lives post the pandemic grew louder on May 1, International Labour Day. Various organisations working with migrant communities demanded immediate measures to address questions regarding the livelihood of the workers. “Sending them back home is not addressing the problem. It is a band-aid solution,” said Roshni Nuggehalli, executive director at Mumbai-based NGO Yuva. “The...