-The Tribune Over 150 farmers’ bodies have come together on a common agenda IS the farmers’ movement in India entering a new phase? Six weeks is too short a window to answer this question with certainty. But the nature of farmers’ protest across the country since the beginning of farmers’ strike in Punjab shows signs of something new. This impression is confirmed in a two-week journey connecting farmers, organisations and movements across six...

-Livemint.com With Tamil Nadu govt temporarily suspending the free goat distribution scheme, the beneficiaries—landless agricultural labourers—will be hugely affected Chennai: A Tamil Nadu government scheme for free distribution of milch cows and goats to the poorest in rural areas has been temporarily halted as the state faces its worst drought in 140 years. The scheme will be resumed after the state receives adequate rainfall, animal husbandry minister P. Balakrishna Reddy told the state...

-The Indian Express As per data being examined by the committee, the minimum wages paid to agricultural workers are significantly higher than MGNREGA wages in Karnataka, Punjab, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Mizoram, and Andaman and the Nicobar Islands. THE COMMITTEE for revision of wages paid under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act (MGNREGA) has found that minimum agricultural wages are higher than MGNREGA wages in 15 states. An upward revision...

-The Hindu Business Line Urban-rural wage gap highest in the North-East and northern States New Delhi: That rural employment, particularly in the informal sector, will fetch lower incomes, does not always hold true. In fact, hired workers in the informal sector in rural Gujarat earned twice as much as their counterparts in urban areas, a recent report of the National Sample Survey Organisation show. Hired workers in rural Gujarat’s informal sectors earned about...

-The Tribune Punjab Govt looks other way, says no record of landless agri workers’ debt Chandigarh: While the Punjab Government dithers on providing debt relief to landless labourers, a new report suggests the number of suicides committed by landless agricultural labourers due to debt is much higher than those by farmers in the state. The “census report” commissioned by the Punjab Government on rural suicides takes into account incidences between 2010 and 2016...