There is no typo in the title of this article, but the term “scorepati” is perhaps confusing. By way of explanation, let me introduce three acquaintances. Meena, age 50, lives in a two-room kaccha hut with her disabled husband Chhote Lal who studied up to Class 2. They own half an acre of unirrigated land and a goat. Meena is unable to take up any remunerated work as Chhote Lal needs...

Social activists up in arms against proposed reforms; impact on procurement feared   The Union Government's new move to give primacy in the revised draft of the National Food Security Bill, 2011, to controversial schemes like cash transfers and issuance of food coupons to identified public distribution system beneficiaries in lieu of foodgrain Entitlements has got social activists up in arms. The scheme was introduced under ‘Schedule II' in the initial draft of...

-The Times of India   The debate about Planning Commission's controversial poverty line could finally be buried. The UPA is now mulling doing away with the BPL-APL divide and providingsubsidized grains to all except those who get automatically excluded in the ongoing socio-economic caste census. But on the flipside, it also wants to reduce the entitlement from the proposed 35 kg to 25 kg instead for the poor.  Along with the move to...

An unprecedented economic growth during the last decade has also seen increasing malnutrition, hunger and starvation amongst certain sections of society. India ranks 66 in the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) World Hunger Index of 88 countries (Inter-national Food Policy Research Institute). More than 200 million people in this country are denied the right to food. One-third of all underweight children (57 million) in the world due to lack of...

The anti-corruption movement has enabled the Indian middle class to feel smug about itself. Its members have gone through a vast range of emotions during the last two decades, from self-hatred to self-righteousness. Liberalisation of the economy has created for this class an excitement of many kinds. It has meant the freedom to pursue the quest for wealth without guilt and, at the same time, it has meant feeling set...