-The Hindu A year after lakhs of workers made their way back to their home States after the nationwide lockdown was announced in March 2020, their condition has not changed much. With State governments announcing lockdowns and curfews in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases, migrant workers could once again be staring at loss of wages and lack of social protections, labour union leaders and activists said on Thursday. A year after lakhs...
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An effective migrant labour policy must consider where existing labour laws fail -Priya Deshingkar
-The Indian Express Niti Aayog’s draft policy is a good start which could, with a few adjustments, reduce the vulnerability and risks faced by labour migrants and ultimately build a more sustainable model of development. The Niti Aayog’s draft Migrant Labour Policy is a clear statement of intent to better recognise migrants’ contribution to the economy and support them in their endeavours. It puts forward several radical ideas, including the adoption of...
More »In the farm laws protests, are Punjab’s landless peasants getting left behind? -Prabhjit Singh
-CaravanMagazine.in On 21 February, over one lakh farmers and agricultural labourers gathered at a rally in Punjab’s Barnala district to pledge unity in the movement against the 2020 farm laws. The rally was organised by the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) and the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union, two of the biggest unions that represent the interests of the landless peasants and work in tandem with each other. The BKU (EU) president,...
More »Govt must give ASHAs, Anganwadi volunteers rights, benefits due as workers -Neetha N
-The Indian Express Recognition of care work in the public sphere could also help in unsettling the gendered and unequal division of house work and unpaid care burden. COVID-19 has given visibility to Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and Anganwadi workers — women “volunteers” attached to a government scheme or employed on a mission mode — who are frontline warriors in the battle against the pandemic. In India, there are about a...
More »'We Are One’: Why Punjab’s Landless Dalits are Standing with Protesting Farmers -Sandeep Singh
-TheWire.in As much at risk as the farmers if the laws are not repealed, the Dalits are also determined not to be used by the BJP to turn the protests against the new agriculture laws into an issue of landowners’ rights. New Delhi: On January 7, Thursday, when 2,000 labourers of the Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union (PKMU) began their journey from Dabwali, Punjab, to the Tikri border between Haryana and Delhi to...
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