-Economic and Political Weekly The Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act 2013 does not give the same rights to those who manually clean drains and septic tanks in urban areas. This is also manual labour and involves the use of hands in cleaning excreta. Workers have to enter manholes to physically clean blockages. Government bodies have brazenly ignored court orders on mechanisation and bans on manual cleaning...

-PTI In what would surely come as intriguing information for policy-makers, a Labour Ministry survey has found that with an increase in education levels in the country, the unemployment rate was also increasing across age groups. One out of every three persons in the age group 15 to 29 years who have completed at least their graduation has been found to be unemployed in the report on 'Youth employment- unemployment scenario, 2012-13'...

-The Indian Express Domestic workers must be brought within the purview of labour laws. The extreme abuse and mistreatment of domestic workers is becoming a part of day-to-day city life, as the recent cases of brutality in Delhi show. This is not to suggest that such incidents never occurred before, but the intensity and scale of such brutal violence are definitely becoming worse. This is alarming, given that there has been a...

-Live Mint NSSO data show that slower pace of jobs creation between 2004-05 and 2011-12 reflects a fall in distressed farm employment Tracing the pace of new jobs created in an economy, a key electoral issue, is a good indicator of inclusive and balanced growth. But in a developing country such as India, the nature of new employment is often as important as the total number of jobs created. The changes...

-Outlook Berhampur (Odisha): Darkness still grips several rural areas of cyclone-ravaged Ganjam district in Odisha even though exactly a month has passed since Phailin hit the district. While restoration work is yet to be completed in rural areas, almost all the urban areas have got back power supply, power distribution company sources said. Of the 475 gram panchayats, power supply was partially restored in 269 panchayat headquarters so far, but fully restored in...