-IndiaSpend.com Latest data indicate a structural shift away from organised sector jobs towards more insecure self-employment or unorganised sector jobs, Mahesh Vyas of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) tells us in this interview Mumbai: "We have an ageing population. If we have shrinking employment in urban places, if the better educated graduates or postgraduates are the ones who are losing jobs, how can we recover the economy from the downslide...

-The Hindu A new publication contends that their lockdown misery was no anomaly but an effect of exclusion from full citizenship When Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the world’s most stringent lockdown on March 24, 2020 with barely four hours notice, lakhs of migrant workers across the country found themselves trapped in a novel situation: their livelihood in the city was gone, but they could not return to their native villages. The...

-The Hindu Multiple bank visits, repeated rejections and biometric errors mar payment system, says study. For most rural workers dependent on the Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), their labour does not end at the work site. According to a study by LibTech India released on Wednesday, many of them are forced to make multiple trips to the bank, adding travel costs and income losses, and face repeated rejections of...

-The Hindu Every election hangs between the two points of mahaul (atmosphere) and samikaran (voter block equations), goes the popular wisdom on polls in Bihar. JEHANABAD: Mrityunjay Kumar worked as a tailor at a small boutique in Noida when a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19 was announced. He found himself without a job and far from his home in the Mahmudpur village in Jehanabad district of Bihar. Like many...

-Press release by National Coalition for Strengthening SCs and STs (Prevention of Atrocities) Act (NCSPA) dated 1st October 2020 Despite explicit constitutional provision and guidelines, the Dalit community across India remain the worst sufferers of the scourge of the caste system, which perpetuates not an only social hierarchy but also institutional discrimination and social exclusion. In the last few months under Covid-19 pandemic, India witnessed an alarming increase in the cases...