-The Hindu With worksites closed, activists urge SC to ensure wages for all those registered Employment under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has collapsed to just over 1% of the usual rate this month due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Activists petitioned the Supreme Court demanding that the government pay full wages to all active job card holders during this time, following its own instructions issued to other employers. Please click...

-The Hindu/PTI The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by activists Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan. A fresh PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to the Centre and authorities to pay full wages to MGNREGA workers for the entire period of the nationwide lockdown. The 21-day lockdown from March 25 was announced by the government to prevent the spread of the...

-Press note by NREGA Sangharsh Morcha dated 24 March, 2020 A group of concerned citizens have appealed the Central and state governments to deliver emergency relief to informal labour force, agricultural workers, small and marginal farmers, MGNREGA workers, old-age pensioners, widows, the differently-abled, slum dwellers, the homeless and other such vulnerable communities through programmes like National Food Security Act (NFSA), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), Pensions, Ujjwala scheme,...

-The Hindu Support becomes critical as thousands of migrant workers return to villages The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme has been officially shut down in at least seven States, while it is effectively closed in many more, as COVID-19 lockdowns come into effect across the country. Workers’ collectives are demanding relief in the form of wages during the shutdown, payment of pending dues, and extension of the scheme in...

-Frontline.in The Budget lacks any serious effort to address the main issues of unemployment, agrarian distress and falling incomes, revealing a high level of official insensitivity. A Budget during a time of recession, increasing unemployment, agrarian distress, falling incomes, demand constraint and malnutrition would have done well to first acknowledge the mess that policies have created and then taken steps to provide employment, boost rural incomes, increase purchasing power and thereby demand. Coming...