-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...
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Several studies but one conclusion -- poorly planned COVID-19 induced national lockdown hurt the poor the most
The recent Supreme Court of India’s judgments (please click here and here) related to ensuring food security of the migrant and unorganised sector workers through the provision of dry ration, running of community kitchens and proper implementation of the 'One Nation One Ration Card' scheme should come as no surprise to us. A recent review of some of the robust studies, which relied on multi-state surveys (or reference surveys), having...
More »Migrant workers bore the brunt of 2020 lockdown due their poor access to social security schemes & legal rights, depicts latest NHRC report
The rise in COVID-19 daily new cases and daily new deaths compelled many state governments to impose local level lockdowns during April-May 2021. As of 20th April, 2021, partial lockdowns were noticed in 10 states across the country and complete lockdown was imposed in Delhi. As of 8th May, 2021, nearly the entire country was under complete lockdown as a result of either partial lockdowns and night curfews or complete...
More »Doorstep delivery of rations sounds like a good idea -- but it actually raises many hard questions -Reetika Khera
-Scroll.in The debate over the proposal has turned into a political slugfest. Crucial questions remain unaddressed. In 2016, the Delhi government ran a pilot in 42 out of its roughly 2,500 Public Distribution System outlets. At these outlets, Aadhaar-based biometric authentication was introduced at the time of sale of grain to ration card holders. A survey was done by students of Lady Shri Ram College at one of the pilot PDS outlets, incidentally...
More »Without Addressing Legacy Issues, Can Digitising Land Records in India Be a Game Changer? -Sandip Chowdhury
-TheWire.in For millions of rural families who still lack access to good internet connectivity or are computer illiterate, the programme may end up increasing out-of-pocket expenses. As part of the Digital India Land Records Modernisation Programme (DILRMP), the central government intends to create an Aadhaar-like unique identification for every land parcel in the country. The initiative named Unique Land Parcel Identification Number (ULPIN) will assign a geo-referenced 14-digit alphanumeric unique ID for...
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