-RuralIndiaOnline.org Months after walking home 800 kilometres in terrible conditions, migrant labourers in Maharashtra’s Gondia district recall their journey on foot from Telangana during the April-June period of the Lockdown When their options ran out, Vijay Koreti and his friends decided to walk home. It was mid-April. India was under a strict Lockdown brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. And they wondered how long they could remain stranded in their small shanties in...

-Siasat.com The unheard cries of hunger and starvation may not even be registered in the public consciousness. 2020 has been extremely challenging for people across the world. With COVID-19 cases spreading like wildfire and death tolls rising beyond prediction, the whole world came to a halt. India too has been in a similar situation for at least 9 months now. With an exponential rise in cases despite a strict Lockdown, the state of...

-The Telegraph The inadequate sanctioning of schemes across gram panchayats hinders operations, thereby reducing employment opportunities The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act tracker released by the People’s Action for Employment Guarantee as well as a research report presented by LibTech India reveal why the rural job programme has not been able to cater to the needs of the poorest during this steep rural job crisis. Earlier, a survey by the Azim...

-Newsclick.in Unemployment has inched up to over 9% as the year ends and the so-called economic recovery is a mirage. For Indians, 2020 will go down in history as the worst year for livelihoods and incomes. Unemployment levels rose to record highs, incomes plummeted to record lows and such was the scale of deprivation that thousands of families teetered on the brink of starvation. Tragically, this was not just the pandemic. It...

-Hindustan Times The anti-CAA protests, the defiance of migrants, and now the farmers’ stir show that the everyday practice of democracy is a powerful corrective in the face of arbitrary and unilateral State decisions Three events defined India’s political landscape in 2020. The protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the migrant labour crisis that unfolded as workers defied Lockdown orders and asserted their rights, choosing to walk home in the face...