-The Week Shambhu Kumar, 8, quite liked his job as a domestic help in a small town in Assam. He had to mind two children nearly his age, keep an eye on the ducks and be available for chores all day. It wasn't too hard, and he was well fed, too, though he missed his grandmother, a tea garden labourer. One day, some women from the state education department came to the...
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Rice cultivation made easy with ‘aerobic system’ -Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao
-The Hindu The new system is less labour-intensive, requires less input and less seed Warangal (Telengana): Agricultural scientists in the district have introduced and popularised ‘aerobic system of rice cultivation' wherein a farmer can directly sow the seed like any other crop. The system is less labour-intensive, needs less input and less seed. At a demonstration programme held at Reddypuram on Sunday, a local farmer's crop which was grown using the ‘aerobic system'...
More »Why some economists are worried about the fate of NREGA under Modi govt -Debobrat Ghose
-FirstPost.com What compelled a group of leading economists from India and abroad to shoot a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the government's job scheme - the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act or NREGA? Is it to speak out against the government's desperation to throttle the scheme or did the economists sense any ulterior motive behind the government's move? A section of prominent Indian economists working out of the country or...
More »Telling the right reform from the wrong -Pramathesh Ambasta
-The Indian Express Moves to dilute labour-material ratio in MGNREGA and focus exclusively on select backward blocks will adversely impact rural poor. Before the general elections, free-market fundamentalists had lobbied fiercely to reshape so-called wasteful social-sector expenditures. Primary among their targets was the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which, according to them, should become an unconditional cash transfer scheme. Post-elections, the late Gopinath Munde's espousal of the MGNREGA went...
More »99 suicide-hit farmer families of Bathinda seek immediate compensation
-The Times of India BATHINDA (Punjab): Activists of farmers' body BKU (Ekta Ugrahan) and farm labourers' outfit Punjab Khet Mazdoor Union went to the office of Bathinda deputy commissioner and submitted the list of 99 peasants, who had committed suicide in the district in 18 months between April 1, 2013 and September 30, 2014. Families of suicide victims also assembled at Bathinda district administrative complex on Monday and sought a compensation...
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