-TheWire.in * India has reduced open defecation and made some progress to improve sanitation services. But its sanitation system is not yet sustainable and not yet safe. * In Tapoban Basti in Bhubaneswar, some men avoid using the toilet every day to not have to incur the cost of cleaning out the septic tank. * In a basti on the outskirts of Jaipur, a community toilet slowly ran out of water and the...

-The Telegraph Court quashed a Green Tribunal order that had stayed the construction of a resort by the Andhra Pradesh government on the Rushikonda Hills in Visakhapatnam New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the National Green Tribunal is subordinate in its jurisdiction to the high courts, which have a constitutional status. The NGT cannot pass orders contradicting those of the high courts as that would lead to an “anomalous” situation...

Every year in the month of either February or March, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) announces the notified MGNREGA wage rates (i.e., notified daily wage rates for MGNREGA workers) for various states and Union Territories (UTs) for the upcoming financial year. The MGNREGA rates are notified every year based on the increase in Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL). Like the previous years, in 2021 too, experts and civil...

-TheWire.in Across India, unorganised workers registering for the e-Shram card have to wade through rumours of monetary benefits, fear of fraud, and a daunting process. On June 31, 2021, in response to a petition on the struggles faced by migrant workers during the pandemic, the Supreme Court directed the central government to accelerate the process of building a database of unorganised workers. The government responded by launching the e-Shram portal – a...

-Leaflet.in Informal migrant workers in metropolitan cities of India have faced multiple forms of vulnerabilities in the last two years of the pandemic. Linkages across schemes for such workers are absolutely critical to creating a social security net that protects them from falling into similar cycles of poverty and destitution during macro and micro economic distresses. ON the occasion of International Labour Day, or ‘May Day’, we explore the dimensions of vulnerabilities...