-The Indian Express The Indian Express spoke to a cross-section of migrant workers back from different parts of the country. These are day labourers and skilled workers such as carpenter, embroiderer, welder, among others. One thread connects them — demand for something beyond MGNREGA. Ranchi: Rakesh Verma and Suresh Yadav had left their homes in Jharkhand for jobs in metro cities and were in no hurry to return. Verma, 22, had a...
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During lockdown, MoEFCC panels cleared or discussed 30 projects in biodiverse forests -Nandini Velho
-The Hindu The projects, including mining and a highway, were brought up during virtual conferences; but site inspections are ‘a crucial component’ of project evaluation, say scientists Dibang Valley in Arunachal Pradesh has a decidedly other-worldly feel. “Yeh kaunsi duniya hai,” my colleague exclaimed as we climbed the towering mountains — home to the endemic goat-antelope Mishmi takin, the ‘bright-eyed’ butterfly Callerebia dibangensis, and the Mishmi wren-babbler. I had read about the...
More »The migrant crisis has exposed how we truly treat our workers -Himanshu
-Livemint.com Weakening labour laws just when they need greater social cover shows a lack of empathy for them The migration of thousands of workers trying to reach their home states has woken up the State, media and the middle class to a new category of citizens: migrants. Ever since the lockdown was announced in the last week of March, they have travelled long distances, dodging the police in state after state, to...
More »Additional allocation for MGNREGA must be supplemented with steps to make it more effective -Rakshita Swamy
-The Indian Express With nearly eight crore migrant workers returning to their villages, and with an additional allocation for the year, this could be a moment for the true revival of MGNREGA. A revival led by workers themselves. The lockdown has resulted in a massive loss of livelihoods, and the 400-million strong unorganised workforce is the worst hit. A significant part of this workforce has migrated to cities from rural areas. With...
More »Thomas Piketty, Professor of Economics at Paris-based School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and expert on inequality, interviewed by Narayan Lakshman (The Hindu)
-The Hindu Nationalism is not going to solve the big problems, says the economist. If the catastrophic human toll of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was the first wave to strike the world this year, its severe economic consequences – including loss of livelihoods of the poor across countries, leading to massive internal displacement and starvation in many cases – have been the second wave. It is in this context that the seminal work...
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