-The Telegraph Survey by Indian School of Business in Jharkhand reveals mass deletion of genuine job cards during linkage India’s economy is going through an unprecedented crisis of unemployment. In these times, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme and other welfare programmes are beacons of hope for India’s large rural population. However, the delivery of welfare has traditionally suffered from leakages. Thus, in 2015-16, the Government of India started linking...

-The Pioneer In yet another demonstration of commitment to its inclusive agriculture growth agenda, the Government of Odisha has announced the BALARAM Yojana to provide crop loans worth more than Rs 1,000 crore to the landless sharecroppers through joint liability groups (JLGs) in the next two years. Lauded as one of the most inclusive income support/cash transfer schemes in the country, KALIA was announced in 2019 to help the small and marginal...

A recent survey that was conducted through telephonic interviews among 1,405 respondents across the states of Delhi-NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Rajasthan and Jharkhand reveals the precarious conditions of workers nearly 45 days after the announcement of COVID-19 lockdown. The report entitled Labouring Lives: Hunger, Precarity and Despair amid Lockdown tries to understand the extent (and depth) of job loss and hunger 45 days after the lockdown. Hunger and...

-Down to Earth The Union govt report had asked states to remove provisions that restricted migrants in accessing PDS benefits The Supreme Court asked the Union government on April 30, 2020 to consider adopting a ‘one nation, one ration card’ scheme for migrants stuck in cities due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. This has brought the spotlight on a 2017 government report on migration that emphasised that short-term migrants usually lose...

-The Hindu Lockdown has left about 42% with no ration and 33% were stuck in cities with no access to food, water, and money, shows research done by IIPS, Mumbai Bengaluru: Migrant workers, who constitute about 50% of the urban population and many of whom are engaged in what are called “3D jobs” (dirty, dangerous and demeaning) are likely to face job and livelihood crisis owing to COVID-19 pandemic, according to findings...