-Down to Earth The central government has mandated digitally capturing the attendance of all workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGnregs). Labourers and activist groups have opposed this and pointed out several loopholes in the move. The National Mobile Monitoring System, which came into effect on January 1, 2023, was launched with claims of bringing transparency and eliminating corruption at the ground level. Pilot tests began in May 2021 at...
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A Tale of Trade-offs: The Anatomy of the Direct Benefit Transfers System -Aarushi Gupta and Siraj Hussain
-TheWire.in While the system was rightly designed to eliminate ghost beneficiaries, the impact of exclusion errors needs to be professionally and independently evaluated in detail. The direct benefit transfer (DBT) system has come to dominate the discourse on public service delivery in India. The existing rhetoric around its efficacy being one of anti-corruption, cost efficiency, and elimination of middlemen. Payments under DBT are made to low-income households using an elaborate, digitised system...
More »A cutback in PMFBY funding may further affect the timely release of compensation for crop failures
On February 18, 2016, India’s Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana. After its launch, the PMFBY was implemented by 21 states during kharif 2016, whereas in rabi 2016-17, 23 states and 2 UTs implemented the same. The Central Government launched the PMFBY in the kharif season of 2016 with the intention to help farmers cope with crop losses because of unseasonal and extreme weather....
More »Several studies but one conclusion -- poorly planned COVID-19 induced national lockdown hurt the poor the most
The recent Supreme Court of India’s judgments (please click here and here) related to ensuring food security of the migrant and unorganised sector workers through the provision of dry ration, running of community kitchens and proper implementation of the 'One Nation One Ration Card' scheme should come as no surprise to us. A recent review of some of the robust studies, which relied on multi-state surveys (or reference surveys), having...
More »Prioritising the right to life -Harsh Mander, Jayati Ghosh and Prabhat Patnaik
-The Hindu A monthly cash transfer to informal workers will provide them relief and also revive the economy The majority of India’s working population is today reeling from the impact of multiple crises: a health emergency more ferocious than any in independent India; massive job losses and dramatic declines in incomes from work; and significantly increased mass hunger and worsening nutrition. Many failures The Supreme Court on May 13 directed the Centre and the...
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