-The Indian Express One year since the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed, there’s been little change in the hunger levels and unemployment rate among migrant workers, especially women. Today marks the first anniversary of the day the central government announced an ill-planned national lockdown. India is home to nearly 500 million informal sector workers with practically non-existent social security and the unilateral decision pushed them into perilous circumstances, triggering their great exodus from...

-TheNewsMinute.com This amount has been pending for the last five months, according to daily wage earners and activists in the state. Grappling with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of rural labourers in Andhra Pradesh turned to National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) to earn a livelihood as several sectors of the economy have been affected. However, pending wages are adding to the woes of NREGA workers who mainly hail from...

When a massive sum of public money is spent on a programme like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA)--a demand-driven programme, there is likelihood of financial misappropriations and mismanagement. Thankfully there are checks and balances in the rural employment guarantee legislation to counter such malpractices. It is worth noting that the total allocation under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA) for 2020-21 was Rs. 1,11,500.00 crore (R.E.), up...

-The Indian Express NITI Aayog’s draft report is well-intentioned. But its failure to address the policy distortions at the root of migrant workers’ issues cannot be overlooked The lockdown-induced suffering of millions of migrants raised awareness regarding their magnitude, vulnerability, and role in the economy. It also led to a flurry of measures by the central and state governments. It is now encouraging that the Niti Aayog, on the request of the...

-The Hindu Software, questionnaires launched. The lack of data on workers, which was evident during the COVID-19-induced lockdown in 2020, would be addressed by the five all-India labour surveys being conducted by the Labour Bureau, Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said on Thursday. Speaking at the launch of the software and questionnaires for the surveys, Mr. Gangwar said the replies given in the Lok Sabha were akin to “running away from...