-The Indian Express One year since the Covid-19 lockdown was imposed, there’s been little change in the hunger levels and unemployment rate among migrant workers, especially women. Today marks the first anniversary of the day the central government announced an ill-planned national lockdown. India is home to nearly 500 million informal sector workers with practically non-existent social security and the unilateral decision pushed them into perilous circumstances, triggering their great exodus from...
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Activists disappointed with MGNREGA wage revision -Sumit Bhattacharjee
-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...
More »Children of migrant labourers in Odisha face an uncertain future -Satyasundar Barik
-The Hindu COVID-19 forced many to discontinue studies and join their labouring parents. BHUBANESWAR: Unlike his three siblings, Arjun Naik, 11, had never stayed in a dingy room near a brick kiln along with his parents. All these years, he was a student at a residential school run by the Odisha government. His classmate, Somu Naik, was put up in such accommodation for months. It was not a pleasant experience. Almost a year...
More »Declining Wages, No Government Aid: Daily Wage Workers Are Stuck in a Deep Crisis -Deepanshu Mohan, Jignesh Mistry, Advaita Singh, Snehal Sreedhar, Sunanda Mishra, Shivani Agarwal, Vanshika Mittal and Ada Nagar
-TheWire.in A survey of mazdoor mandis in Surat, Lucknow and Pune shows that even many months after the lockdown ended, workers are struggling to make ends meet. “Since the time of COVID-19 lockdown, there has been a severe crisis of employment opportunities in local labour markets. Getting work for even two days a week is difficult for us. Daily wages too, for any work possible, have dipped by half,” says Rajesh Singh,...
More »A peek into Jharkhand’s mica mines where child labour & illegal mining are no secret -Praveen Jain and Simrin Sirur
-ThePrint.in The mica mining industry today operates via unlicensed middle men and labourers who scavenge for mica in large abandoned mines, or dig holes into the earth for scraps. Giridih, Jhumri Telaiya: For generations, families living in the Koderma and Giridih districts of Jharkhand have survived on the collection and trade of mica — a shimmery, translucent mineral used in cosmetics and automobiles. The mining of mica was once a legal, thriving business...
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