-The New Indian Express BHUBANESWAR: Though lakhs of persons are enrolled under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the State, not many women benefit out of it. The State, which has a huge casual labour population, continues to lag behind when it comes to participation of women in MGNREGS. This despite the fact that the scheme besides guaranteeing employment, is aimed at making a positive impact on...

-The Indian Express In Madhya Pradesh’s Hoshangabad district, reeling under malnourishment, govt shuts eggs out of anganwadis while locals see hope in poultry farming Maryarpura (Hoshangabad): Gagan Lachhu is so emaciated that he can hardly walk on his own. In a few months he will turn two but his weight is an alarming six kilograms. “Once, we nearly forced his mother to admit him at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre in Itarsi...

-Outlook Pulses are falling off the poor man’s plate. Price rise may hit the middle class next. Pulses—all-important as a source of protein—are set to be spoilers this year in the government’s endeavour to keep a check on food inflation. Already, over the last nine months, the prices of some pulses have jumped 64 per cent in major cities. This is because of below-normal monsoon last year, compounded by untimely rain and...

-The Indian Express Child nutrition is being held hostage to spurious, largely upper caste, arguments Child nutrition is prime-time news only when a tragedy occurs. Child undernutrition is no less a tragedy but rarely recognised as such. Attention to it, following the Madhya Pradesh chief minister’s rejection of a proposal to introduce eggs in anganwadis is significant and welcome. Few people realise food intake in India is very poor. According to the 2005-06...

-IPS News BETUL, India- Mamta Bai, 36, distinctly remembers the first time the police came to her village: it was December 2014 and her neighbour, Purva Bai, had just been beaten unconscious by her alcoholic husband, prompting Mamta to make a distress call to the nearest station. Once in the neighborhood, policemen pulled the abusive husband out of his home and asked the village women if they wanted him to be arrested. “Yes,”...