-The Indian Express In April this year, the Centre revised the MGNREGA wage across states with some, such as West Bengal and Assam have been hiked by Rs 2 and Rs 3 respectively. A drought-hit state, workers have now decided to return the Rs 5 to Prime Minister Modi, as a sign of protest, this May Day. “We feel that you need the extra five rupees more than we do, since your...
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Poll-bound states report surge in MGNREGA job numbers -Shalini Nair and Harish Damodaran
-The Financial Express West Bengal, Assam and Tamil Nadu — states that are currently in assembly elections mode — have registered huge spurt in job numbers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act (MGNREGA). West Bengal, where the Trinamool Congress under Mamata Banerjee is fighting to retain power, saw a record 28.66 crore person-days of employment being generated under MGNREGA during the year ended March 31, 2016. This represented a...
More »Rising elderly population needs a broad-based support system
Although the focus of erstwhile UPA and the present NDA government has been to achieve higher economic growth by reaping the 'demographic dividend', a recent report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) informs us that a substantial chunk of the population underwent ageing during the last 60 years. The report entitled Elderly in India: Profile and Programmes 2016 from CSO (that comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation) shows...
More »Job scheme target cut belies hopes -Basant Kumar Mohanty
-The Telegraph New Delhi: Projected work under the rural job guarantee scheme for 2016-17 is down 10 per cent after a rare boost in the last financial year, suggesting a tightening of the purse strings following a year of heavy expenditure on the programme. The rural development ministry has approved the generation of 217 crore person-days of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, following last year's approval for...
More »The Indian woman who hunts the witch hunters -Soutik Biswas
-BBC Not so long ago, Birubala Rabha believed witches existed. Assam: Growing up, neighbours often told her about evil women, or daini (witches) skulking in the village. Ms Rabha was six when her father died, forcing her to drop out of school to help her mother, a farm worker in India's north-eastern Assam state. She was 15 when she got married to a farmer. Ms Rabha mostly stayed at home, weaving and looking after their...
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