NREGA, the UPA’s flagship employment scheme for which the Government has spent over Rs. 90,000 crore, is facing complaints of fudging of attendance registers, prompting the Union Rural Development Ministry to constitute a Working Group to look into it. The Ministry has already set up six such panels to deal with different issues relating to implementation of the programme like planning and execution of works, transparency and accountability and timely payment...

For two decades the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) has taken the Right to Information Act to the grassroots. KAVERI GILL was witness to a mela that celebrated its 20th anniversary at Bhim, Rajasthan.  The occasion was no political party rally, nor was there any promise of handouts by the state, dangling a carrot or wielding a stick to elicit attendance On Labour Day, a maidan in Bhim, District Rajsamand,...

The global platform for action on gender equality and women’s empowerment was fixed in Beijing 15 years ago and international organizations like the ILO, women activists and researchers, policymakers, etc all over the world have advocated for gender equality in the world of work for even longer. Although women constitute almost 41 per cent of the global labour force, yet the productive potential of women workers still remains grossly undermined....

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Schemes (NREGS), introduced in Sattari taluka in 2008, has started showing positive results. Sattari Taluka Programme Officer Shivdutta Munj has claimed that out of the 254 proposed works, 154 projects were sanctioned and they have completed 100 works under the scheme, while 15 were under execution. “So far, 2,679 job cards have been issued to the locals in Sattari taluka and as many as 2,746 workers have...

The best advertisement is that which the public pays to receive. So the UPA government will turn the rural job scheme into a diploma course in its universities, teaching students about the pro-poor programme’s achievements against a small fee. The one-year course, which starts from the 2011-12 academic year, will also impart education in the nitty-gritty of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme’s implementation. Fittingly, at the end of it the...