-TheCitizen.in81.3% of the female workforce in India out of the pale of the urban movementWhen Sumitra Devi, a resident of a remote village in Uttarakhand, has to collect fodder and firewood from the nearby forest, she is forced to travel in a group. The group provides her safety from wild animals, and more importantly, men. Going alone in the forest is a surefire recipe for inviting unwanted attention from men,...

-The Telegraph Despite being prohibited the practice remains widespread and unmodernised, and violators are not punished The death of five sanitation Workers in Delhi is a grim reminder of the hostile conditions that confront manual scavenging in India. Manual scavenging has been prohibited by law. Yet, it remains unchecked. There is also a distinct lack of effort to make this objectionable occupation safe and dignified. This is the net result of institutional...

-The Hindu The CEO of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana on the challenges and scope of the scheme and responses from the States Indu Bhushan is the CEO of the world’s largest government-funded health insurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 23. Until his appointment as CEO of PM-JAY, Mr. Bhushan served as director general for the East Asia...

-Networkideas.org In recent times, the clamour for formalising economic activity, or shrinking its unorganised component and expanding the organised, has been heard from diverse sources. There are those who want formalisation to occur because the unorganised sector is seen as being largely outside the direct and indirect tax net, depriving the government of much needed resources. Hence, for example, one feature seen as favouring the Goods and Services Tax regime is...

-The Hindu The exodus of migrant labour from Gujarat highlights the indifference of States to their well being and rights Gujarat is one of the top States in India that receive migrant Workers, largely temporary and seasonal, on a large scale. In Gujarat, they work in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs in a wide range of activities such as in agriculture, brick kilns and construction work, salt pans and domestic work, petty services...