A recent survey that was conducted through telephonic interviews among 1,405 respondents across the states of Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan and Jharkhand reveals the precarious conditions of workers nearly 45 days after the announcement of COVID-19 lockdown. The report entitled Labouring Lives: Hunger, Precarity and Despair amid Lockdown tries to understand the extent (and depth) of job loss and hunger 45 days after the lockdown. Hunger and...

-PTI/ Livemint.com Rajasthan government has issued job cards under MGNREGA to the migrant labourers who returned home during the lockdown, says Ashok Gehlot JAIPUR: Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to increase employment limit under the MGNREGA from 100 to 200 days which would benefit 70 lakh families in rural areas of the state hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. He said the Centre has started the 'Garib Kalyan...

-The New Indian Express Ninety two per cent of the respondents had lost their jobs, said the survey which covered both migrant and non-migrant workers. NEW DELHI: Communities struggled with hunger with loss of livelihood amid the lockdown with inter-state and intra-state migrant workers being the worst hit, according to a survey by Centre for Equity Studies in collaboration with Delhi Research Group and Karwan-E-Mohabbat. Ninety two per cent of the respondents had...

-The Hindu Diverse regimes in Early Modern India often saw the distress migration of rural inhabitants when, much like today, displacement became the forced choice between hope and hunger The scale of the migrant labourer exodus from the precariousness of cities to the security of their home villages has few parallels in Indian history. Economist Chinmay Tumbe estimates that by the end of May, no fewer than 30 million Indians had moved...

-Down to Earth Distress among marginal farmers and unavailability of food to migrant labourers has been largely ignored in Union government’s economic stimulus   Agriculture and allied activities are considered ‘essential’ and officially face no restriction to harvest and supply to the market, even in the middle of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. But an agrarian crisis stemming from systemic failures needs to be considered for immediate policy response. The current distress...