-The Hindu ‘Not paying Minimum Wages amounts to forced labour’ VISAKHAPATNAM: The Human Rights Forum (HRF) and Samalochana Association expressed their disappointment over the quantum of increase in the wage rate of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. “The increase in wages by a meagre ₹8, from the existing ₹237 to ₹245 a day, is measly and amounts to mere eyewash. We are concerned about...

-TheWire.in The minimum statutory wage of an Indian worker is the lowest in the world, except for some sub-Saharan African countries. New Delhi: A latest report by the International Labour Organization (ILO) has revealed that Indians are among the most overworked lot globally while earning the least minimum statutory wage in the Asia-Pacific region, barring Bangladesh, Live Mint has reported. India ranks fifth in the world among the countries with long working hours...

-Down to Earth blog The distress among small farmers in India is market-driven to a large extent in both ways — too much protection (minimum support price) or too little. The question of future of Indian agriculture has been around for some time now since the agrarian distress and crisis in the sector. It has become important in the context of the spate of recent reforms that include permitting private wholesale markets,...

-The Indian Express Recognition of care work in the public sphere could also help in unsettling the gendered and unequal division of house work and unpaid care burden. COVID-19 has given visibility to Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) and Anganwadi workers — women “volunteers” attached to a government scheme or employed on a mission mode — who are frontline warriors in the battle against the pandemic. In India, there are about a...

-TheWire.in Researchers have found that small and marginal farmers and Dalit landless labourers are worst affected by the region's agrarian distress. Sangrur/Patiala (Punjab): In the villages of Punjab, strike a conversation on farming  expenses with anyone, and they will say, “Karja tan hai hi (Of course, we have taken loans).” It’s these loans – from both institutional and non-institutional sources – that largely help the rural economy run in the state. But...