Farm News
Farmers return for unfinished business with Union government
‘We will be back’ was the message by the dissatisfied farmers under the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) while calling off their year-long strike at the national capital in December 2021… Now, facing police blockades and carrying rations for six months, protesting farmers are back to complete unfinished business. The current protest is headed mainly by farmers from Punjab who say they are answerable to farmers across India as to the fate of their 2020-2021 protest. The organisers are part of the earlier SKM, which was a conglomerate of 36 organisations from all over the country.
At least 3 farmers lost vision due to pellet injuries: Punjab health minister
On Wednesday, the Haryana Police, in an effort to stop farmers from marching towards Delhi, fired teargas shells and rubber bullets at two points on the Punjab-Haryana border — at Shambhu (Patiala-Ambala border) and Khanauri (Sangrur-Hisar border).
Editorial comment: When farmers end up being anti-farmer
Protesting farmers demand a legally guaranteed minimum support price (MSP), but it is not beneficial for the majority of farmers. GoI aims to improve the farm sector and increase farmer income, ruling out the demand. A guaranteed MSP undermines sustainability of agriculture, impacts water levels, soil health, public health, and food security.
Farmers protest 2.0: How this agitation differs from 2020-2021
Farmers back on road to Delhi: How the current protest differs from the 2020-21 edition: In both its demands and leadership, the farmers' protest of 2024 is very different from the yearlong agitation of 2020-21. Here's what this protest is about, and who is leading it.
Employment News
India's SpiceJet to cut jobs, save $12 mln annually
BENGALURU-- Indian low-cost carrier SpiceJet (SPJT.BO), said on Monday that it has started adopting measures to reduce its workforce, aiming to save 1 billion rupees ($12 million) annually. Economic Times reported earlier in the day that the cash-strapped airline would lay off 1,400 staff or around 15% of its 9,000-strong workforce. The carrier, however, did not confirm the number of jobs being cut.
Sharp Fall in Number of MGNREGA Workers in Telangana After Union’s Push Towards Aadhaar-Based Pay
According to experts, the deletion of job cards outnumbered the additions under the scheme because of the new norm. While the figure of deletion at the national level, according to a rough estimate, is 7.6 crore, in Telangana, about 18.04 lakh workers have been deprived of work in spite of holding job cards issued under the programme. The system, in its old form, envisaged IFSC code of bank branches and account numbers as financial address and was in use in Andhra Pradesh since 2014. But the addition of two more verifications for disbursal of wages in the new system has weaned away the lakhs of workers from the programme.
NDA provided 1.5x more govt jobs than UPA, says PM Narendra Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday distributed more than 100,000 appointment letters to newly inducted recruits in the first Rozgar Mela (job fair) of 2024. Addressing the event via videoconferencing, Modi said the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the past 10 years provided 1.5 times more government jobs for the youth than during the decade-long rule of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).
Dying at Work
Adivasi Tea Worker Dies After Alleged Starvation in North Bengal
In a tea garden in North Bengal, a 58-year-old Adivasi worker died of alleged starvation on February 2 after he was unable to obtain food from government sources and allowance from the tea estate where he worked, according to activists who spoke to Down to Earth. Dhani Oraon of Kalchini block in Alipurduar district worked at the Madhu Tea Garden, the Down to Earth reported. The tea garden had been closed for seven years, reopening in December 2021, during which period workers were reportedly deprived of their entitled benefits.
714 workers died in industrial accidents after 2021 in Gujarat: Minister
The minister’s statement came after Congress legislator Arjun Modhwadia sought to draw ‘urgent public attention’ to an industrial accident that happened at Onerio Lifecare Private Limited, a pharmaceutical factory, in Padra of Vadodara district on January 31 in which three labourers died and two sustained serious injuries.
In the Courts
Delhi HC pulls up MCD over non-payment of salaries and pensions to staff
The Delhi High Court on Friday cautioned the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to set its house in order by augmenting resources and paying arrears of salaries and pension to employees, or else, face “consequences”. The court said that the issue relating to non-payment of salaries to staff and pension to retired employees had been “dragging on” for many years, adding that it was the civic agency’s statutory obligation to pay employees in accordance with the Seventh Pay Commission.
Analysis
High tide of youth unemployment: Joblessness among the youth cannot be addressed through fiat
It is possible to interpret the response to Israel's recruitment drive for construction workers as Indian nationals exploring opportunities in the global workplace due to shortages of semi-skilled and skilled labour. But this desperation to get out reflects a push factor stemming from the limited jobs in the government and private sector in the country. This can also take place illegally. As many as 96,917 Indians were apprehended seeking to enter the US between October 2022 and September 2023, per United States Customs and Border Protection data.
Wages of inequality: The income-growth gap
Gap between wage and GDP growth indicates a worsening of income distribution as well as weak improvements in welfare.
Policy Changes
Govt. gets ready to include ASHA and anganwadi workers/helpers in its Ayushman Bharat scheme
After the Central government announced its decision to include Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and Anganwadi workers and helpers into the free cover for health treatment under Ayushman Bharat Scheme, the Health Ministry has so far received Aadhaar details of 23 lakh anganwadi workers and helpers and over three lakh ASHA workers from various States.
Sikkim Restores Old Pension Scheme, Regularises Temporary Employees
Chief Minister Prem Singh Tamang announced the restoration of the Old Pension System for state government employees appointed on or after April 1, 2006. The government also amended its previous notification for eight years of service before regularising temporary employees. employees serving continuously for four years or more in various capacities, may now be considered for regularisation.
Labour in Parliament
Parliamentary panel urges Modi govt to increase MGNREGS workdays from 100 to 150
A House panel has recommended to the central government that the number of workdays under the flagship rural employment Act (MGNREGA) be increased from 100 to 150 during any given financial year, heeding a longstanding demand of civil society. The panel, headed by DMK MP Kanimozhi, tabled the report on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Parliament Thursday.
Contract Workers
Two of every five industrial employees now contract workers: ASI data
Every two in five workers employed in industrial establishments were contractual hires in 2021-22, showing an increasing trend of contractualisation of the labour force in the country. Also, the share of employer's contribution towards wages of the workers has seen a continuous decline, according to the latest Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
Jobseekers
Painting the big picture: what’s luring poor, jobless youth into spraying pro-Khalistan graffiti
Intelligence-gathering and arrests reveal a network that recruits desperate youngsters to spread the message of separatists by giving promises of money and jobs abroad
UP: 85,152 Primary Teacher, Headmaster Posts Vacant in Govt Schools, but no Plan for New Recruits
Basic education minister Sandeep Singh told the Assembly there would be no fresh recruitment drive, even as lakhs of B-Ed graduates await jobs.
The big all India exam leak: Over 5 years, 1.4 crore job seekers in 15 states bore the brunt
The Indian Express investigated 41 documented instances of leaks over the last five years in recruitment exams across 15 states — their governments cutting across party lines. What emerged was startling: The leaks derailed schedules of as many as 1.4 crore applicants, applying for a little over 1.04 lakh posts.
About 13,500 employees from Byju’s, Paytm get on job-hunting mission
The job market currently has over 6,500 active and accessible professionals from Paytm and another 7,000 from Byju’s, showed data from popular job boards and portals put together for ET by specialist staffing co Xpheno. Amid a hiring slowdown in the startup ecosystem, the going isn’t likely to be easy for jobseekers despite many of them being willing to take substantial salary cuts, recruiters said.
Child Labour News
OSCPCR calls for ‘no child labour’ vow
BHUBANESWAR : The Odisha State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (OSCPCR) has asked the Housing and Urban Development department to include undertaking of non-engagement of child labourers as a mandatory component in the licence issuance process for small and big business establishments in all urban centres. OSCPCR calls for a ‘no child labour’ vow. The commission urges officials to mandate business establishments to display bilingual boards declaring non-engagement of child labour, following recent rescues of child labourers in urban and semi-urban areas.
Children turn labourers due to zero schools in Elluparai
VELLORE: At a time when education is widely considered to have been democratised to a large extent, the abject lack of schools and anganwadi centres in a Vellore village has forced children to cut short their dreams of education and seek employment as child labourers instead.