-Livemint.com Data from National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) 2011 round shows that domestic workers fare worse in comparison with others employed in the informal sector Mumbai: On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi broke down at a Facebook Inc. townhall recalling his mother’s toil as a domestic help. For decades, the poor condition of domestic workers has been a reality in India. Data from the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) 2011 round shows that...

-The Indian Express The MGNREGA promises 100 days of employment every year to each rural household. The Act mandates that at least a third of the workers under the scheme should be women. The flagship rural job guarantee scheme may have succeeded in ensuring that a significant proportion of its workforce comprises of women, but it has failed to bridge the gender gap and include women in a holistic way, a...

-Down to Earth India’s public spending on health is among the lowest in South East Asia and BRIC countries The burden of aspirations and expectations seems to be taking a toll on young India, especially males who succumb to suicidal deaths more than their female counterparts, according to the data published by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI). The data showed that over 67 per cent cases of suicidal deaths in...

-Deccan Herald Twenty years, 35 villages and over 10 lakh surviving trees. Harshavardhan Sheelavant narrates a community initiative in Dharwad district that has converted hundreds of acres of fallow land into green orchards and transformed the lives of farmers. It was another monsoon day without rains. But the dry spell didn’t quench the spirit of residents of Belligatti village in Dharwad district who assembled near a small hillock on the outskirts of...

-The Indian Express In 2006, the Rural Development Ministry under then minister Jairam Ramesh had inked an agreement for the publication of an annual India Rural Development Report by the IDFC Rural Development Network. An overwhelming majority of rural, landowning households in the country are Hindus — with their number growing between 2004-05 and 2011-12 — while Muslims constitute only a small minority, a new government-endorsed study has found. According to the...