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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SWAN’s third report outlines the perpetual plight of migrants in terms of food shortage, income insecurity and travel difficulties during the lockdown
On June 5th this year, the Stranded Workers Action Network, comprising volunteers from various civil society groups, academics and students enrolled in university education, released its third report entitled ‘To Leave or Not to Leave? Lockdown, Migrant Workers, and Their Journeys Home’. Among other things, the latest report states that nearly four-fifth of migrant workers (out of 5,911) who called SWAN volunteers for help (altogether 821 distress calls were made)...
More »Two-thirds of migrant workers still don’t have access to government ration: Survey -Shagun Kapil
-Down to Earth The survey also reveals several other shocking facts that fly in the face of government claims on migrants. Eighty per cent migrant workers surveyed by Stranded Workers Action Network (SWAN), do not have access to government ration two months after the COVID-19 lockdown indicating food distress among stranded migrants to be as high as the first phase of the lockdown. The results are based on 821 distress calls received by...
More »Concerned citizens ask state governments to transport stranded migrants to their homes
-Press release by Stranded Workers Action Network, dated 20th May 2020 We, the undersigned organizations call upon the State governments concerned to bring out all idle transport vehicles out from garages to the State and National highways to carry the workers to their home. We also request that more interstate trains be run, and in a coordinated fashion, to ensure that workers do not remain struck in overcrowded dormitories and camps....
More »To Get Trains, Migrants Stuck With English Forms, OTPs And More -Anindita Adhikari & Seema Mundoli
-NDTV "Marenge toh gaon mein hi marenge" said a determined Ramesh as he walked down a highway in Gurgaon in late March with his wife and two small children. The family had just set off for their village, 450 km away in Madhya Pradesh because they did not think they would survive a 21-day lockdown with no source of income. 45 days, two extensions, a disposed-of petition on wage payment for...
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