-TheWire.in This lockdown hunger is not the only worry. Post-COVID, access to safe and nutritious foods would be uncertain if adequate policy measures are not taken. The COVID-19 pandemic has further worsened India’s hunger and malnutrition woes, more so for the millions of informal workers, on their way back home or struggling to meet two ends in their urban and rural homes. Their embedded informality over labour, land and housing tenure has...
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Can raising the approved labour budget from 280.76 crore person-days to 306.6 crore person-days help the unskilled returnee migrants who prefer MGNREGA to Garib Kalyan Rojgar Abhiyaan?
Although social activists and concerned economists demanded at least Rs. 1 lakh crore to be earmarked in favour of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), the Finance Minister in her budget speech on 1st February allocated only Rs.61,500 crore to it for the financial year 2020-21. As compared to the fund spent on MGNREGA in 2019-20 (i.e. revised estimate of Rs.71,001.81 crore), the amount set aside for the...
More »Rolling back the induced livelihood shock -Sumit Mazumdar and Indranil
-The Hindu Specific policy measures can reverse the lockdown-created trauma and stop it from snowballing into chronic poverty For most regions across the country, the long lockdown has just got over. As the “unlocking” begins, it is becoming increasingly apparent how the Indian state had chosen its sides and revealed its elitist bias during one of the most stringently enforced lockdowns worldwide. Several news reports and surveys on the plight of India’s...
More »Five Things the Govt Needs to Do to Mitigate Rural and Migrant Distress -Ashwini Kulkarni
-TheWire.in The dire situation induced by the nationwide lockdown is now threatening to undo the last few decades of work in poverty alleviation. The outbreak of the novel coronavirus and the subsequent nationwide lockdown measures have accelerated simmering rural-agricultural distress. Migrant workers who have recently returned to their native villages are but another critical dimension of the deteriorating situation. The dire circumstances are now threatening to undo the last few decades of work...
More »Barring a few, most states and UTs ignored the guidelines to help persons with disabilities during the lockdown
A recent survey conducted by National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) -- a Delhi-based non-profit organisation -- shows how persons with disabilities in the country were disproportionately affected by the COVID–19 crisis. The report by NCPEDP has observed that persons with disabilities, particularly those from economically deprived sections, went through severe hardship during the lockdown. Without sufficient access to food or money, many of them faced hunger...
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