-Down to Earth Agriculture is the least-affected sector of the economy. It is poised to gain and lead economy’s revival process ‘Year of COVID-19’— this is how 2020 is probably going to be remembered. It has been more than six months that the novel coronavirus disease has been dominating public discourse, news cycles, internet searches and even geopolitics. As on July 8, 2020, India had more than 0.7 million cases. It was among...
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Can raising the approved labour budget from 280.76 crore person-days to 306.6 crore person-days help the unskilled returnee migrants who prefer MGNREGA to Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan?
Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...
More »COVID-19 rural crisis: Why MGNREGA needs a harder push -Debmalya Nandy
-Down to Earth MGNREGA workers across the country on June 29 staged peaceful demonstration, raised demands for higher benefits and wages The nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) left Mahatma Gandhi Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA) workers in the lurch. Thousands such workers, facing an economic crisis, have demanded an increase in the annual guarantee of work to 200 days per person. The workers from across...
More »Utilise MGNREGA to the fullest capacity -Brinda Karat
-The Hindu The scheme should not be diluted in the name of the Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan The role of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) as a lifeline for the working poor in rural India has been proved once again with the experience of the lockdown. In April and part of May, it was the absence of MGNREGA which accentuated rural distress. The Central government revised lockdown guidelines...
More »86 per cent jump in MGNREGA demand in districts most migrants returned to -Harikishan Sharma
-The Indian Express An analysis of data on the MGNREGA portal shows that the number of households availing MGNREGA work in these districts jumped to 89.83 lakh during May — 86.27 per cent up from 48.22 lakh in the same month last year. With migrant workers returning to their hometowns during the lockdown, the demand for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) saw a huge jump in...
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