-The Hindu Daily wagers are taking part in rallies for Rs. 1,000 a day and a meal VIJAYAWADA (Andhra Pradesh): Farmers are running short of hands during the crucial rabi sowing season, with thousands of daily wagers opting to work in election campaigns instead. Politicians are paying the agricultural labourers ?1,000 per day for being part of an election rally, apart from a meal and snacks. The job entails being a part...

  Growth in rural wages not only indicates economic prosperity of the masses, it is also considered important so as to generate effective demand for goods and services, which is produced by various sectors of the economy. When money becomes available in the hands of rural workers due to government spending on programmes such as Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), it generates demand for commodities. The production of commodities...

-The Hindu The proposal, a version of which has been previously presented to the Congress and to a foundation working with other Opposition parties, has been released in a policy paper titled ‘Strengthening towns through sustainable employment’. With rising unemployment becoming a major poll issue, and several political parties proposing solutions for it in their election manifestos, a group of labour researchers have proposed a national urban job guarantee programme for small...

-Down to Earth Three in four Indian women not employed while the gender pay gap is 34 per cent Irrespective of employment category (casual and regular/salaried), organised or unorganised sector, and location (urban and rural), women workers in India are paid a lower wage rate, says a report by Oxfam, an international non-profit organisation. The gender pay gap was 34 per cent in India, that is, women get 34 per cent less compared...

-The Hindu New Delhi: With just 10 days to go for the first payout deadline under PM-KISAN, only 2.74 crore farm families, or about 56% of the total list of 4.92 crore names submitted by States, have been paid so far. The remaining 2.18 crore farm families are still awaiting processing or are caught somewhere within a four-stage validation process set up belatedly to weed out fakes. The scheme to pay Rs....