Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...
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A safety net, post Covid: We need to provide minimum income for poor and vulnerable -C Rangarajan and S Mahendra Dev
-The Indian Express We need to provide minimum income for poor and vulnerable — cash transfers for women, increasing MGNREGA to 150 days in rural areas, introduction of urban employment guarantee scheme. In the post corona crisis situation, India has to address many problems, of which two stand out. First, the improvement of our healthcare system and second, the need for the institution of a scheme to provide minimum income support to...
More »Job loss certainty highest among villagers & Muslims -Pheroze L Vincent
-The Telegraph Tablighi stigma and need for government support come up during hindi-belt survey Job loss rates have been similar in rural and urban areas but the perceived “surety of losing work” is higher in the rural areas and the highest among Muslims among communities, a survey of 1,405 workers across nine Hindi-speaking states has found. “The survey revealed that the perception of uncertainty about future of work was the highest among women...
More »Lockdown further impoverishes those who were living on the edges of existence even during normal times, finds a new report
A recent survey that was conducted through telephonic interviews among 1,405 respondents across the states of Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan and Jharkhand reveals the precarious conditions of workers nearly 45 days after the announcement of COVID-19 lockdown. The report entitled Labouring Lives: Hunger, Precarity and Despair amid Lockdown tries to understand the extent (and depth) of job loss and hunger 45 days after the lockdown. Hunger and...
More »India’s dairy sector has helped lift the rural economy and improve livelihoods -Yashobanta Parida and Deepika Yadav
-The Hindu Business Line The country must now usher in a new era of development for the dairy sector, by building procurement infrastructure in milk deficit States and adopting appropriate technology in these regions World Milk Day was established by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) on June 1, 2001, to recognise the importance of milk as a global food. This year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of World Milk Day. This...
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