- Deccan Herald Covid-19 reverse migration of labour added to joblessness A rise in self-employment and unpaid family labour three years into the Covid-19 pandemic even as wage rates fell is an indication that rural distress has risen, the economist Santosh Mehrotra writes. Economic distress was on an upward trajectory even before the Pandemic and the sudden arrival of millions of reverse migrants in 2020 added to the stock of unemployed people...

-The Hindu Business Line A recent digital literacy programme in rural Uttar Pradesh shows that eliminating gender disparity in digital literacy can work wonders for the inclusion of women in the workforce  Kamla says she turned from helper to co-owner in her husband’s grocery shop the day he handed over his smartphone to her. That day, like every other, he had kept shop till Kamla joined him after completing her morning household...

Contrary to the rising economic distress on the ground since the last few years, the official press release related to the fourth Annual Report on the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) at first glance seems to give a rosy picture about the employment situation in India.  Defined as the percentage of persons unemployed among the persons in the labour force, the unemployment rate in usual status (principal activity status + subsidiary economic activity status)...

-Press release by Oxfam India dated 15 September 2022 New Delhi: Oxfam India’s latest ‘India Discrimination Report 2022’ finds women in India despite their same educational qualification and work experience as men will be discriminated in the labour market due to societal and employers’ prejudices. The academically recognised statistical model applied in the India Discrimination Report is now able to quantify the discrimination women face in the labour market. The lower...

-IndiaSpend.com Even as the rural employment programme provides low wages, it is a source of income and opportunity for women who have few other avenues of work in rural India and face barriers in migrating out of the village for work Rajsamand, Rajasthan: The year that Chanchal Kumari was born was the year of the drought in Rajasthan--2002. For two years, the state had a severe water shortage--no water for drinking or...