About 26 Indians "most of them from eastern UP" have been held hostage near Malaysian city Ipoh for over a week now. According to reports, the hostages have been confined to a room surrounded by hills covered with dense forests. All that they are being given is rice, salt, a few biscuits to eat and water from flush tank to drink. Besides, they have been tied to each other so...

Vedanta has initiated efforts to get mining rights in other areas of the state to run its 1-million-tonne plant at Lanjigarh but the Congress has vowed to block the handover of at least one of the alternative sites. The company’s rethink CRYstallised after Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi hinted on August 26 that the Niyamgiri hills would not be given for mining to Vedanta Alumina. During the past two days, the chief...

The Right to Education Act (RTE) mandates the setting up of School Management Committees (SMC) by all private unaided schools for managing school affairs, including fixing fees, in six months’ time but so far no school has done anything about it. RTE implementation would complete the stipulated six-month period on September 1 but many schools are not even aware of the concept under which 75 per cent of the members of...

Bolangir district in Orissa, facing drought conditions since 1965, sees an annual mass migration of farmers to other States in search of work. SURESH GOHIR of Bhotapada village in the backward Bolangir district of Orissa consumed pesticide two years ago after his paddy crop failed. He survived the suicide attempt but found life doubly difficult as debt had mounted. Suresh was forced to migrate to neighbouring Andhra Pradesh in search of...

The Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, JeeVika, a state-led women’s self-help group, is active since 2007. Based on primary research, this article highlights the potential role of the individual rural woman – the didi – in driving the social and economic shifts necessary for sustainable poverty reduction in rural Bihar. The term didi is used to address an elder sister. It embodies the notion of respect. Traditionally, the term has remained...