-The Indian Express The view of MGNREGA as a makeshift work programme is far off the mark. Few social programmes in India are more resented by the corporate sector than the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). This is easy to understand, considering that one of the primary aims of the MGNREGA is to empower workers and reduce their dependence on private employers. Naturally, employers see this as a threat...
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Pursuing zero hunger -Varun Gandhi
-Asian Age Children born in India are, on average, shorter than those born in sub-Saharan Africa. Even worse, 255 million Indians remain food insecure, eating less than 2,100 calories daily. Jharkhand reports the lowest per capita calorie intake (1,900 Kcal) in rural areas, while West Bengal hovers similarly (1,851 Kcal) in urban areas. We have attempted to meet this challenge through legislation. Aside from the Right to Food Bill, the landmark...
More »Dignified alternative -Harsh Mander
-The Hindu Far from being ‘useless’, the MNREGA helps the impoverished and resilient poor earn a decent living. Famously on the floor of Parliament, Prime Minister Modi dismissed the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) as a ‘living monument’ of the previous governments’ failures, condemning millions of impoverished people to survive by ‘digging ditches’. This spring near Bhim in Rajasthan, I had the rare experience of labouring on an MGNREGA site....
More »‘Housing for all’ Shelter scheme to exclude rental plan -Shalini Nair
-The Indian Express As per the earlier proposal, the Centre was to provide for 75 per cent of the construction cost of rental units. As Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveils the ‘Housing for All’ by 2022 on Thursday, rental housing, proposed with an outlay of Rs 6,000 crore, will now be missing from the NDA government’s flagship shelter mission. According to officials, the mission originally had provisions for creation of urban rental...
More »Cash demand from LIC baffles activist -Gautam Sarkar
-The Telegraph Bhagalpur: An unusual demand of Rs 2 lakh by an insurance company in lieu of providing information to one Right to Information (RTI) activist from Bhagalpur has left the crusader in the lurch. Ajit Kumar Singh, the RTI activist, had sought information from the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) of India about the details of implementation of a scheme, mainly aimed at the economically weaker sections and also about the works...
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