In October last year, the ministry of labour released the results of its first large-scale survey of employment and unemployment in India. The headline number was this: 9.4 per cent of India’s labour force is unemployed. An enviable number by world standards in the middle of recession. Except, of course, that number means precisely nothing. The problem lies in figuring out exactly who counts as unemployed. Given the nature of...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Total Matching Records found : 217
Wages of tokenism by TK Rajalakshmi
The revised daily wage for NREGS workers is still lower than the minimum wages paid in several States. A CONTROVERSY seems to have surfaced between the Prime Minister's Office and the National Advisory Council (NAC) on the issue of wages under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). The NAC has been arguing for some time that there should be parity between wages under the National Rural Employment...
More »Miracle workers by Anupama Katakam
A courier company in Mumbai shows the way in providing employment for the hearing impaired. IN the milling crowds of Mumbai, they stand apart with their orange T-shirts printed with the name Mirakle Couriers. Every day, during the busy hours of the working week, one sees them on the sidewalks, in public transport and elsewhere with large black bags slung on their shoulders. It would not be enough to say...
More »It’s for States to identify BPL families by Gargi Parsai
The Prime Minister’s Expert Committee on the proposed National Food Security Bill has differed with the National Advisory Council not only on its recommendation for subsidised foodgrains entitlement for the non-poor population, but has also recommended that the identification of the poor beneficiaries for the proposed benefit be done by State governments and not by central agencies as suggested by Sonia Gandhi. The panel, headed by C. Rangarajan, Chairman of the...
More »Lethal impact by R Krishnakumar
The issues relating to the victims of endosulfan, sprayed in the plantations of Kasargod district in Kerala, have snowballed once again. “Earthworms emerged from the soil, and, subsequently, died. Then birds came to eat the earthworms and they died as well.” “Some termites were killed in a cotton farm sprayed with endosulfan. A frog fed on the dead termites, and was immobilised a few minutes later. An owl which flew over...
More »
