-The Economic Times   Over half the country's workforce is self-employed and women receive less pay than men for similar jobs, latest government data shows. While 51% of the country's total workforce are self-employed, only 15.5% are regular wagers or salaried employees and 33.5% casual labourers, according to a survey by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), the key findings of which were released on Friday. The number of people selfemployed...

Taking ahead its fight against corruption in schemes under MGNREGA, the Aruna Roy led Suchna Evum Rozgar Ka Adhikar Abhiyanhas begun work for bringing the glare of the Supreme Court and the Centre on cases of misappropriation in the state. The Abhiyan's move comes after alleged complacency by the state in handling these cases. And while the Abhiyan would be taking up the numerous cases where sarpanches have been found...

-PTI   A number of issues pertaining to rural development programmes such as Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, National Rural Livelihoods Mission and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act are likely to be discussed in a two-day conference beginning here tomorrow. Besides monitoring and evaluation of the development programmes, issues relating to District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) administration scheme will be discussed in the conference to be inaugurated and chaired by Minister of Rural...

More than five years have passed since the world’s largest employment programme was launched in India. The scale of employment generated was not the only reason that this is a path breaking legislation. The MGNREGA is the first national law to establish rights in the development sector. It is demand based, and not constrained by arbitrary and restrictive selections like the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list. Any person living in a...

Once nominated as the best state for implementation of MGNREGA, Rajasthan has now gone down the chart in the implementation of the flagship scheme of the UPA government. In fact, the irony is that the state got the laurels for the scheme under the Vasundhara Rajegovernment and its fall has come under a Congress government. The data compiled by Aruna Roy-led Suchna Evum Rozgar Ka Adhikar Abhiyan from the government's...