Affluent farmers are exploiting MGNREGS, the central govt’s flagship programme, sending their workers to draw wages whenever they are not required on their farms THE GOVERNMENT seems to be in a fix with its flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) being widely misused even as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) decides to conduct its own independent audit of the scheme along with National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)...
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A relentless crusader by Sudha Umashanker
Ruth Manorama started her work with the urban poor in her youth; there has been no turning back ever since. She is the powerful voice of Dalit women today. Is it easy being a Dalit in India? And a woman at that? Have things changed for the better for the Dalits who constitute roughly 16.23 per cent of our population, since the Constitution of India “cast a special responsibility on the...
More »Do Posco differently by Mahtab Alam
Mahtab Alam examines the trouble with the steel project and suggests a way out THE PROPOSED mega Posco project and the anti-Posco movement are back in the news after the violence at the proposed site on 16 July. According to the reports I got, on that day, eight platoons of police attacked and lathicharged peaceful protesters in the village of Nuagaon, Jagatsinghpur district, Odisha. The protesters, despite being mostly women, were...
More »A day at the vineyards by P Sainath
Some of that legendary ‘Banarasi pan' could have begun its journey from Gujjari Mohanty's vineyard in Govindpur, Orissa. “I've sold our leaves in Benares [Varanasi] myself,” says her son Sanatan. As have many of their neighbours. “Our leaves are high-quality and greatly valued.” The betel leaf, though, is not just about pan. It is also valued for medicinal qualities as a digestive, for the antiseptic nature of its oil, and...
More »Missing demographic dividend? by Arup Mitra
The results of the NSS 66th round survey (2009-10) on employment and unemployment show a striking decline in the female labour force and the workforce participation rates as per all the three criteria (the usual, weekly and daily status) in rural and urban areas as compared to 2004-05. Even among urban males, there is a decline in the rates as per the usual and weekly status, though the daily status...
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