When put in charge, women in India are better than men at providing clean water and adequate sanitation for their communities. And despite the gains women have made in the developed world, they’re still doing about as much of the housework and childcare as women in India. The World Bank’s recently released 2012 World Development Report on gender equality and development shows progress in some areas, while in others gaps in...

Narendra Modi’s Gujarat is the only developed state in the country where the percentage of malnourished children is higher than the national average, a government report released today said. Gujarat has 44.6 per cent underweight children, compared to the country’s average of nearly 42 per cent. Six other states have a higher-than-average proportion of malnourished children but all of these are poor — Madhya Pradesh (60 per cent), followed by Jharkhand (56.5),...

Today is the ''International Day for the Eradication of Poverty'', so it an appropriate day to note how necessary it still is to emphasise this concern among Indian policy makers. Sadly, lack of official awareness is evident in all sorts of recent policy measures, for example in the cynicism of increasing oil prices that feed into all other prices with cascading effects, even when inflation has already imposed huge burdens on...

-PTI   Over a half of Indian women suffer from anaemia and a higher number of Muslim infants compared to national average (in 2005-06) lived beyond their first birthday, says a report released on Friday. The "India Human Development Report 2011", prepared by the Institute of Applied Manpower research, a Planning Commission body, says there is an increasing trend of anaemia among women of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Muslims. The report says Scheduled...

In the gathering gloom of slowing growth and political drift, comes some good news to brighten up the festival season. The latest Human Development Report, released today, shows that “inclusive growth” — the mantra of the entire political establishment — may not be just a mere slogan. Socially and economically weaker sections, like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Muslims, are finally catching up with the rest of the country on important...