-TheWire.in Only six states have the rules necessary to operationalise the PESA Act's provisions – yet the myth that PESA is alive and kicking prevails. A quarter-century ago, on December 24, 1996, the Parliament enacted a law unlike any other in the country. This was India’s first law to actually recognise people’s powers, in the form of the gram sabha at the hamlet level. This path-breaking legislation was the Provisions of the...
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Why counting caste matters -Kalaiyarasan A and Trina Vithayathil
-The Hindu Caste data will help us understand the contours of inequality and craft reasoned and inclusive policies The debate about whether the decennial Census should collect data on caste from individuals who fall into the administrative categories of ‘General’ and ‘Other Backward Classes’ (OBCs) has been argued by public intellectuals, politicians, and government administrators for decades. As the Census currently only collects data on ‘Scheduled Castes’ (SCs) and ‘scheduled tribes’ (STs),...
More »Centre to scrap caste-based payments for MGNREGA -Priscilla Jebaraj
-The Hindu The Centre has decided to scrap the system of caste-based wage payments in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme after complaints from State Governments. In an order dated November 1, the Finance Ministry directed the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) to “revert to the previous system of generating single muster, single FTO [or Fund Transfer Order] and transferring money into a single NeFMS [or National Electronic...
More »Controversial order to split MNREGA payments on caste lines withdrawn after states object -Neelam Pandey
-ThePrint.in Social justice ministry noted that its field report indicated a deepening of caste division within village communities over segregation of workers into SCs, STs and others. New Delhi: The Modi government’s controversial decision to split wage payments along caste lines under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been withdrawn and the earlier system of payment from a single account has been restored, ThePrint has learnt. The move made...
More »Harsh lessons
-The Telegraph A total of 19 per cent or 11.16 lakh teaching positions in schools lie vacant in the country; 69 per cent of these are in rural areas According to the 2021 State of the Education Report for India: No Teachers, No Class, 1.1 lakh schools in India have just one teacher. Even more worrying is the fact that the problem is especially acute in districts with high representations from scheduled...
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