-Hindustan Times Ranchi: Jharkhand’s bureaucrats have denied thousands of farm workers their legally mandated livelihoods under the guise of plugging leakages in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), say activists. Earlier this month, HT reported that the ministry of rural development had cancelled 93 lakh MGNREGA job cards — of which 2.67 lakh cards were from Jharkhand — to weed out duplicates and cards corresponding to dead beneficiaries. At the...

-TheWire.in In Gujarat’s Chhota Udaipur, MNREGA has helped villagers increase their earnings, improved connectivity in the area and led to higher farm yields. In the ubiquitous environment of the withdrawal of the welfare state across the globe, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA) in India stands out as a critical and unique intervention. MNREGA is a social safety net that guarantees 100 days of employment to every rural household...

-Down to Earth The Red Dot Campaign by SWaCH cooperative is sensitising people about the importance of proper handling and disposal of sanitary waste SWaCH (Solid Waste Collection and Handling), a Pune-based wholly-owned cooperative of self-employed waste workers, in collaboration with the Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP) and Rotary Pune, launched a ‘Red Dot campaign’ to help waste pickers avert health hazards due to mishandled sanitary waste. The campaign is the...

-The Times of India There is a trace of pride in Nisha Chaurasiya's voice as she complains of how she and her co-workers in an anganwadi in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh struggled to provide food to babies and children, and to expectant women, since demonetisation took effect on November 8. "The self-help groups borrowed money from everybody, stood in bank queues, pleaded with officials and even spent from their own meagre savings...

-PTI KENDRAPARA: With the harvesting of paddy crop drawing near, the age-old practice of 'Badalia', a system of exchanging labour services prevalent in coastal districts, is showing signs of revival in some pockets of Odisha. A small and marginal farmer like Jugal Kishore Lenka is all set to work in a fellow farmer's plot during harvesting to cut down his need for cash in the post-demonetisation scenario. Together with Sudam Sahu, a fellow...