-CaravanMagazine.in On 30 May, the dominant caste landowners of Ghanauri Khurd village in Punjab’s Sangrur district organised a meeting of their panchayat. Under the supervision of Rajdeep Kaur, the sarpanch of the village, they passed a list of resolutions against the wages, welfare and freedom of the primarily Dalit daily-wage labourers of the village. The resolution capped the wages of workers at Rs 3,800 for sowing an acre of paddy and...

-The Hindu Business Line While farms have managed to woo back labourers, it is still a trickle for industries Forty-two-year-old Tanmoy, who worked in a plant on the outskirts of Siliguri and had lost his job during the lockdown, is happy that he decided to heed his friend Hari Santhal and come to Punjab. “I was sitting idle and wanted to earn for my family. Since I had worked in farms earlier, I...

-Livemint.com * Rural spending is the only ray of hope for a ravaged economy. But will consumers rise to the occasion? * The income loss due to 30 million migrant workers returning home is a significant hit to household finances. Moreover, covid-19 has deeply affected an already bruised consumer psyche The locked rooms lining the courtyard of Dilip Patidar’s sprawling ancestral home once smelled like a spice box. That was some years ago...

-The Hindu Food security and farmer welfare are intertwined It is ironic that it took a devastating pandemic to force the government’s hand for long-overdue agrarian reforms. Amendments have been made to the Essential Commodities Act, 1955. The Finance Minister has urged States to dismantle the Agricultural Produce Market Committees. Several long-term changes have been made to the agricultural sector, such as fair pricing and e-trading, along with liquidity measures. The Centre...

-Livemint.com * Increased government spending on the rural jobs programme has also aided returnee migrants * The urban job loss rate fell nearly 2 percentage points to 11.19% in the week ended 21 June over the previous week The timely arrival of the monsoon has given a much-needed boost to rural employment, absorbing thousands of migrant workers who have returned to their rural homes in seasonal farm jobs. The rural unemployment rate continued to...