Archive of South Asia Citizens Wire

  • India: Chhattisgarh Special Public Safety Act Used To Target a Labour Organiser and His Family

    by Sudha Bharadwaj, 3 May 2009

    sacw.net
    ANOTHER CASE OF ARREST FOR VAGUELY DEFINED OFFENCES UNDER THE DRACONIAN CHHATTISGARH SPECIAL PUBLIC SAFETY ACT.
    Pawan Verma was a worker - an expert cook in the Canteen and VIP Guesthouse of the erstwhile L&T Cement, now Ultratech Cement plant at Hirmi, district Raipur, Chhattisgarh. A few years ago, fed up with the anti-worker attitude of the management, he took voluntary retirement and lives in village Hirmi. I have known him ever since I fought cases for his union (…)

  • Pakistan: The State Should Not Turn a Blind Eye To Workers Rights Violations

    by Niaz Khan, 2 May 2009

    The News
    Friday, May 01, 2009
    THE prime minister of Pakistan in his first address to the nation on March 28, 2008 said that non-skilled labourers will get minimum Rs 6,000. This was formally announced in June 2008 budget and a notification to this effect was also issued. Labourers were to get at least Rs 6,000 for from July 1 onwards.
    For the first time, there was such a huge increase in minimum wages - from Rs 4,600 to Rs 6,000. While government organisations gave their employees the (…)

  • Bangladesh: The Trade Union Movement is in Doldrums for Years

    by Nazrul Islam, 2 May 2009

    New Age, May 1, 2009
    Editorial
    Party’s interest more important to union leaders than workers’ rights
    Opportunism, corruption, undue political interference, workers’ disunity and the ideological divide between the leaders have stalled the trade union movement in Bangladesh for decades, which has allowed the workers’ rights to be trampled across the country, said analysts and activists.
    The absence of constructive unionism has imperilled the workers in both formal and informal (…)

  • Pakistan Obsession of India’s Hawks and the Media

    by Jawed Naqvi, 2 May 2009

    Hard News
    Shared Destiny
    Indian policy towards Pakistan is like the Mughal emperor who just didn’t want to know what’s going to hit him
    Barely six weeks before the Mumbai attacks, the national security advisors of India and Pakistan met in New Delhi where they discussed everything except Kashmir or other humdrum ’routine’ issues that are taken up in their bilateral parleys. The focus was on the October 14 meeting on terrorism.
    The Indian embassy had been blown up in Kabul in July: 41 (…)

  • India: NREGA promises transformation of rural livelihoods

    by sacw.net, 2 May 2009

    India’s countryside continues to be characterised by a sluggish agrarian economy, marred by malnourished children and anaemic women, as also suicide by farmers in distress. But there is no question that NREGA has put money into the hands of the poorest of the poor on a scale that is unprecedented in the history of independent India.

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