Kerala has a long history of foodgrains deficit, especially in rice. For instance, deficit in rice has increased steadily in the State from 45 per cent to 85 per cent between 1957 and 2008. However, not enough attention has been paid to mitigate the food insecurity problem in the State in the context where there has been a large scale decline in the area and production of paddy. This paper...

Bagisa Shramik Santha and Asom Majuri Shramik Union, two registered unions of the state, have demanded that the tea industry should hike the daily wages of labourers on a par with wages given to workers under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) schemes. The unions have over one lakh members across the state. The Asom Majuri Shramik Union has its headquarters in Silchar while the Bagisa Shramik Santha has it headquarters...

Assam’s performance on NREGA implementation remained a matter of concern for the year April 2009 – March 2010. NREGA is to guarantee 100 days of guaranteed employment of the rural communities of Assam but research showed a different picture. North East Social Trust (NEST), a voluntary organization working for the community development for last eight years in Assam, carried out a research last year in collaboration with the Indo-Global Social...

Thousands of workers from the state employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) will protest outside Parliament on March 30. The members,of the NREGA worker union from Punjab, allege widespread corruption in the scheme and poor working conditions. “NREGA was implemented from April 1, 2008. As per rules, job cards should have been made by that time, but even now many workers are running from pillar to...

Bharatiya Janata Party MLC Vinod Tawde on Thursday demanded a probe by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) into an alleged scam in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in Maharashtra. According to him, hundreds of crores of funds meant for NREGA Wages were being pocketed by officials. “In Jawahar and Mokhada areas in Thane, one MGNREGS site reported that wages were paid to workers. But the list included a...