-The Indian Express According to the Central Statistics Office, there were 24.95 crore households in India in 2011. If every household in the bottom 20 per cent is eligible for this income, this translates into a total expenditure of about Rs 3.6 lakh crore annually. When Congress president Rahul Gandhi announced that his party, if voted to power, would offer a minimum income of Rs 72,000 a year for the poorest 20...

-The Indian Express PATIALA: After studying in-depth the exploitation of women labourers in rural Punjab, especially the dalits, a team from Punjabi University in Patiala has laid bare some startling facts about the high debts, sexual exploitation, gender disparity, caste discrimination and exclusion from the political process of these women. The study ‘Socio-Economic Conditions and Political Participation of Rural Women Labourers in Punjab’ by Professor Gian Singh, an expert on rural economics,...

-Down to Earth High debts, sexual exploitation, gender disparity, caste discrimination and exclusion from the political process continue to bedevil these mostly Dalit women An eye-opening study released on March 19, 2019, on the plight of rural women labourers in Punjab, has brought to centre-stage, the issue of the failure of India’s political system to deliver after more than 72 years of independence. The document points at the marginalisation of these women, overwhelmingly...

-The Indian Express After a meeting of the Congress Working Committee which approved the draft manifesto, Rahul said the Nyunatam Aay Yojana (Nyay) scheme was a “ground breaking idea’ and would mark the beginning of the final assault on poverty. CONGRESS PRESIDENT Rahul Gandhi Monday said if his party was voted to power, its government would roll out a minimum income scheme guaranteeing Rs 72,000 a year to the bottom most...

-The Hindu Waste disposal from other toilets could turn into health and environmental nightmare New Delhi: Over the last year, a government advertisement featuring film actors Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar has been preaching the benefits of the “do gadde” or twin-pit latrines, which would create valuable farm manure from human excreta. “Shauchalaya ka ashirvad,” proclaims Mr. Kumar in the advertisement produced by the Centre’s flagship sanitation scheme Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. This month,...