The newly released Situation Assessment Survey of Agricultural Households and Land and Livestock Holdings of Households in Rural India (NSS 77th Round) establishes the fact that the farm households are more and more relying on wage incomes instead of 'net incomes from crop cultivation' for their livelihoods. In Marxian lexicon, proletarisation (a term that we can loosely use for depeasantisation) refers to the process in which the farmers/ tillers are...

-The Hindu Absence of data has created difficulties in providing special facilities to BCs, says Jharkhand CM Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, leading an all-party delegation from the State, met Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday to demand caste-based census and handed over a memorandum for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The delegation included leaders of nine political parties including the principal Opposition party BJP and ally Congress. “Along with members of the all-party...

-The Hindu The case for reservations for women and transgender persons in State jobs and higher education The Bihar government recently announced 33% horizontal reservation for women in State engineering and medical colleges. While reservation for Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) is referred to as vertical reservation, horizontal reservation refers to the equal opportunity provided to other categories of beneficiaries, such as...

-Scroll.in Even as the RTE Act has ensured 25% reservation for economically backward students, the lack of internet access has resulted in dropouts. Over the past one-and-a-half year, the prolonged closure of schools due to the Covid-19 pandemic has reversed the educational gains made in the last decade. This is especially relevant to socially and educationally disadvantaged children who gained access to education in private schools through the quota for them under...

-Down to Earth The Government of India amended the payment procedure for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) some time ago. Due to this, MGNREGA workers in the states and Union territories faced a delay in their wage payment. This delay came at a time when the second wave of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was wreaking havoc across the country. MGNREGA was started in 2006. Economist and honorary...