Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...
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Expand rural job scheme: Activists -Achintya Ganguly
-The Telegraph 'The base of the MGNREGA beneficiaries needs to be broadened by including more deserving people as its beneficiaries' Ranchi: The rural job guarantee law can be a saviour for scores of workers who have lost their jobs during the ongoing lockdown and are returning to their villages, a group of social workers have underlined. Jharkhand NREGA Watch, a group of social workers who describe it as a forum of concerned citizens,...
More »Suggested resources to understand the COVID-19 crisis better
These days a lot many articles, reports, documents, etc. are appearing in the public domain on Coronavirus infection and related issues. An attempt has been made in the present news alert to put together in one place some of the best articles, reports, blogs, webinars, podcasts, etc., which can be useful for our readers. We have divided the resources under various themes for the convenience of our readers and social media...
More »Kitchen gardens in schools can improve nutritional levels
-Hindustan Times A garden can provide a context to students for understanding seasonality and life cycles of food; it can provide an opportunity to work cooperatively on real tasks; students can learn about where food comes from; and they can observe all of the principles of ecology in practice The Union human resource development (MHRD) ministry recently asked all schools (rural and urban) in the country to set up kitchen gardens. The...
More »No change in MGNREGA wage rates observed between 2018-19 and 2019-20 for 4 states & 2 UTs
Non-payment of MGNREGA wages on time to workers and non-revision of daily wage rates, among other things, have kept the poor away from the programme in many states. When the notified daily wage rates under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (2005) Act (MGNREGA) for 2019-20 was announced on 26th March 2019, it became clear that the existing wage rates were not revised (viz. as compared to 2018-19) in...
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