-The Hindu The manner in which crucial laws are being amended will end up eroding rights that have deep consequences on the lives of our children and us as citizens of a thriving democracy. All because the state hasn’t been able to deliver what it was mandated to do. The last few months have seen an alarming trend of crucial laws being amended, or sought to be amended, in a manner that...
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UNDP calls MGNREGS best job guarantee plan for rural poor
-The Economic Times LUCKNOW: The latest edition of the United Nations Development Programme report on Human Development Index released on Monday has referred to Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) as among the best known employment guarantee schemes providing direct jobs to the rural poor. Interestingly, in February this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had referred to the scheme as a "living monument" of Congress-led UPA government's failures. MGNREGS, which...
More »Machines set to foray into job scheme -Basant Kumar Mohanty
-The Telegraph New Delhi: The national rural employment scheme is set to allow use of labour-displacing machinery in all activities in a move that, social activists say, would defeat the objective of guaranteed 100 days' work to a rural household. The rural development ministry is set to amend its guidelines under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) to allow use of machinery such as JCBs, rollers, mechanical mixers and...
More »Mintu Devi’s magic wand -Priyanka Kotamraju
-The Hindu Business Line As the Right to Information Act completes 10 years, we examine how RTI has changed people’s lives, become a byword for democracy, and helped alter the relationship between citizen and state Mintu Devi’s relationship with the ration shop changed the day she filed an RTI. In the jhuggis of New Seemapuri, situated on the northeastern edge of Delhi, she is a legend. The 37-year-old mother of four is...
More »Don’t dismantle, reform -Sonalde Desai
-The Indian Express There is evidence to suggest that with a few modifications, MGNREGA can dent poverty. There are few government programmes that excite as much passion as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). For advocates, it is a lifeline for the rural poor. For critics, it is a programme that distorts labour markets and does far more harm than good. In this partisan quicksand, it is hard to...
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