-The Hindu Business Line The government must universalise social security pensions for the elderly, single women and persons with disabilities and also operationalise the maternity entitlement scheme at the earliest, says Reetika Khera, Associate Professor of Economics at IIT-Delhi. In an interview to BusinessLine, Khera argued against the use of Aadhaar for authentication of beneficiaries and said it has “no role in plugging leakages or in the identification of correct beneficiaries”....
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Maternity entitlements on hold: How the government has undermined women's and children's rights -Jean Dreze
-The Times of India One year ago, on 31 December 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared that the government would soon provide for maternity benefits of Rs 6,000 per child. He announced this as if it were a new initiative, possibly aimed at sweetening the demonetisation pill. What he did not mention is that maternity entitlements of Rs 6,000 per child had been a legal right of all Indian women since...
More »Return to Alma Ata -Ritu Priya
-The Indian Express India’s healthcare debate should go back to the 40-year-old declaration that accords centrality to the local medical worker. India’s healthcare crisis has evoked a policy debate with arguments being made in favour of and against the public and private sector. S.N. Mohanty (‘Fixing healthcare’, IE, November 11) summarises the arguments of both sides very well. He concludes that there is a need to “design the public health system around...
More »Privatising district hospitals: Health ministry, states, experts had little say in Niti Aayog plan -Menaka Rao
-Scroll.in RTI documents show that Niti Aayog largely worked with World Bank and top private healthcare industry. The Niti Aayog’s blueprint to increase the role of private hospitals in treating non-communicable diseases in urban India by handing district hospitals over to the private sector on 30-year leases was built largely on a template provided by the World Bank. The template was fine-tuned in close coordination with top private healthcare industry representatives. State...
More »Despite RERA, Centre and states not doing enough to protect home buyers -Manish
-Hindustan Times The central government has extolled RERA as a panacea for exploitation of home buyers with the establishment of an independent authority in each state. But its own actions in the Capital reflect poorly on the objective The Real Estate (Regulation) Act, 2016, the flagship legislation to protect home buyers, has come into force, but its implementation on the ground continues to lag, with the central and state governments equally lax...
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