An Indian serving judge and his family members’ names were reported as beneficiaries of India’s National flagship programme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) in Jukkal block of Nizamabad district in Andhra Pradesh. As per information, Judge Vijayrao Patel, who is currently posted at Sholapur district Court and his name was registered in his native village Gullabig in Indian government job scheme meant for people living below poverty line(...

Recently an interesting article appeared in The New York Times on how after the completion of a social audit at Nagarkurnool in Andhra Pradesh, villagers punished a local official for swindling funds allocated to the central government's flagship project, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme. The irate villagers tied the official's hands and paraded him around the neighbouring villages. This is not a one-off incident; similar accounts have...

South Asia in general and India in particular have the dubious distinction of standing out for wrong reasons every time a new global poverty report is released. We not only have the largest number of underweight children, a very high maternal mortality rate and the world’s highest number of out of school children but we also top the global malnutrition chart. (See links below for more details)  However the 2011 United...

Activists associated with framing and implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) have raised alarm against linking of Aadhar, the Unique Identification Number (UID) of an individual, with the job scheme. According to them, the effort would deprive a large number of labourers of job opportunities and may result in complete blockade of the scheme at certain places. A movement spearheaded by development economist and member of...

Union Minister for Labour and Employment Mallikarjun Kharge said the major challenge facing India today was that of the unorganised sector. He was speaking at the second World Social Security Summit organised by the International Social Security Association in Capetown, South Africa, on Friday. Mr. Kharge is heading a six-member high-level delegation from India, which held discussions with several Labour Ministers of the nearly 120 countries participating in the meet. Mr. Kharge...