-GoIMonitor.com The villagers getting management rights under the Forest Rights Act can inspire others “First came the forest, followed by the people, and then the government. Does this chronology allow the newest entrant in the scheme to determine the relationship between the two older entities? In other words, does the new regime of community forest resource bequeath rights or is it merely a recognition of unalienable rights already vested in the communities living...

-The Indian Express Also on the CEGC member-list is Sudhir Aggarwal, a BJP member who is “founder-president, Confederation of Voluntary Organizations” and who describes himself as a “swayam sevak since childhood” on his website. New Delhi: The editor of RSS publication Panchjanya, members of a few Hindu spiritual organisations and the CEO of a drone company are among people drafted as “non-official members from various states” in the apex body responsible for...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Poor diet and low education levels among women contribute to high levels of stunting among Indian children, nutrition researchers said on Friday after the first-ever district-level study of stunting nationwide. The study by the International Food Policy Research Institute has found that low body mass among women, low levels of education among women, and the diet of the children themselves are, in that order, the strongest factors influencing...

-Civil Society News New Delhi: In 1974, Dr Samir Chaudhuri, a paediatrician working in Kolkata’s slums, founded Child in Need Institute (CINI) to tackle the many dimensions of child malnutrition. It struck him at the time that malnutrition wasn’t just a clinical problem but a complex phenomenon rooted in gender issues. Over the years, led by Dr Chaudhuri, CINI developed deep understanding of the social, economic and political underpinnings of malnutrition...

-The Indian Express Large numbers of the tribals who have gathered in the Mumbai are not seeking a loan waiver, but the implementation of the vision envisaged in Forest Rights Act, a legislation enacted by Parliament in 2006. The nearly 40,000 sunburnt and dusty men and women waiting patiently in an open ground in Mumbai on Sunday night tell the story of the continuing gloom in Maharashtra’s farmlands more succinctly than the...