-India Spend/ Scroll.in These programmes should look at skilling the workforce for paid jobs rather than unpaid, part-time volunteers. Central government programmes on water emphasise groundwater management by the community in a decentralised manner but, by and large, these schemes are silent on the availability, training and deployment of a skilled workforce for this task, especially in rural areas. Water management at the most decentralised, local levels is often a part-time, volunteer or...

-Down to Earth The arduous journeys of those who migrate for medical treatment in India Marta kya na karta (One can do anything when pushed to the wall),” says 40-year-old Rita Kumari from Supaul district of north Bihar. At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic was tightening its grip across the country Rita and her daughter, Sandhya, had to undertake multiple trips to hospitals in Nepal and Uttar Pradesh, before reaching the All...

-The Hindu New generation anganwadis to exclude 11-14-year-olds; focus shifting to 14-18-year-olds The Centre is launching a back-to-school campaign to bring at least four lakh young girls who are out of school into the formal education system. Under the new Saksham Anganwadi scheme of the Women and Child Development Ministry, these 11-14-year-old girls will no longer receive anganwadi support, as the focus shifts to 14-18-year-olds, Women and Child Development (WCD) Secretary Indevar Pandey...

-Article-14.com India’s 380 million informal workers will be registered on a new database that will allow, says the government, social security payments. It isn’t working as it should because the government insists on Aadhaar, which many workers do not have. Others do not know of it, and if they do, may not be digitally literate, and it isn’t clear what entitlements will follow for workers whose data are being collected. New Delhi:...

-The Hindu Audits, transparency and citizen-centric accountability need to be a part of fund support and disbursement Every COVID-19 wave in India has brought us face to face with the dire precarity of life and livelihood for India’s vast numbers of unorganised workers, and the inadequate response of the state and society to their plight. The latest global OXFAM inequality report highlights how India’s billionaires have grown dramatically in numbers and wealth,...