Recognising the work of writer and social activist Mahasweta Devi, the Human Resource Development Ministry has appointed her as National Research Professor for a second term of five years from February 2011. Mahasweta Devi will be entitled to an honorarium of Rs.75,000 a month in accordance with the existing terms and conditions under the National Research Professorship Scheme. Mahashweta Devi was appointed as a National Research Professor in February 2006. Thereafter, Mahashweta Devi...

The International Labour Organisation has done well to include a draft convention on decent work for domestic workers in the agenda for the 100th session of the International Labour Conference, scheduled for June. For centuries the domestic workers have lived along the margins of the international workforce. Well-documented reports by the ILO and other organisations point to the universality of their woes. Entirely informal in nature, domestic work, at its...

Nearly 50 women job card holders are working at the Bist Doaba canal near Pinjora under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Scheme without any safety measures. The work involves de-silting the canal, but officials have not provided for adequate safety measures at the site. Amarjit Kaur, one of the workers, said: “Officers should take care of our safety as the canal banks are usually quite slippery.” After the intervention by...

The Union ministry of rural development is thinking of referring the two recent MGNREGS-related murders in Jharkhand to the CBI after arriving at the conclusion that the job scheme has been taken over by a contractors’ mafia in the state. According to a highly placed source in the ministry, the Centre was now convinced that the Jharkhand government was not taking adequate measures to undo the wrongs in the scheme. “Since...

The National Advisory Council (NAC) has now sketched out the “contours of a national food security bill”. The goal is worthy: “Protecting all children, women and men from hunger and food deprivation.” To some, the bill might appear utopian. The truth is worse. The bill reminds us of John Stuart Mill’s denunciation of a government policy of his day: “What is commonly called Utopian is something too good to be...