-The Indian Express According to the 2011 census, 3.5 million migrants who moved within the last one year stated economic reasons for migration. The corresponding numbers for the 2001 and 1991 census, were, respectively, 2.2 and 1.4 million. The COVID-19 crisis is affecting rural India at a time when agriculture is already in a precarious situation. The thousands of migrant workers who have returned to their villages since the lockdown used to...
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ILO: COVID-19 causes devastating losses in working hours and employment
-International Labour Organisation News The COVID-19 pandemic is having a catastrophic effect on working hours and earnings, globally. A new ILO report highlights some of the worst affected sectors and regions, and outlines policies to mitigate the crisis. GENEVA: The COVID-19 crisis is expected to wipe out 6.7 per cent of working hours globally in the second quarter of 2020 – equivalent to 195 million full-time workers. Large reductions are foreseen in the...
More »Utilise FCI stock for those who have ration cards and those who don’t -Siraj Hussain and Ajit Ranade
-The Indian Express The states must engage NGOs, factories and charities including religious organisations to raise funds for meeting the expenditure on milk, eggs, cooking oil and vegetables, and even soaps and sanitisers. Nearly one-fifth of India’s labour force consists of internal migrants. As per the 2011 census, a quarter of the urban population consists of migrants. These tend to be predominantly male, from the less developed northern states, in the lower...
More »Perils of lockdown and informal sector workers: Reflections in the time of Covid-19 -Amrita Ghatak & Kingshuk Sarkar
-Vikalp.ind.in The unprecedented fear of Covid-19 leading to ‘social distancing’ through lockdown in the entire India has yet again unfolded the plight of informal sector workers even in the midst of a universal public health crisis worldwide. The lockdown, for a huge number of informal sector workers is associated with the loss of livelihood; but for others engaged in low-valued essential works such as home delivery, scavenging and cleaning the society,...
More »Rs 1.7 lakh crore Covid-19 package: Many who have been hit still left out, relief too little -P Vaidyanathan Iyer
-The Indian Express The central government’s package, as it is, comes a week after Kerala first announced a Rs 20,000-crore support for its people. Many states including Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Telangana and Rajasthan followed suit. The Rs 1.7 lakh crore economic package announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the vulnerable sections — farmers, women, construction workers, senior citizens, widows and the disabled — is less than 1 per cent of...
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