-Business Standard Green revolution pioneer now marked by rising rural despair, with high costs and low incomes pushing a mass of small cultivators into a debt trap Chandigarh: Fifty eight and counting…the number of farmers' suicides in Punjab in the past three months due to agrarian distress is alarming. Maharashtra, Punjab and Telangana top this grim list, the Union government informed Parliament last week. Rainfed states are in a crisis due to two...
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The forgotten ones: Looking at agricultural labourers -Sukhpal Singh & Shruti Bhogal
-The Tribune While there are have been debates about the plight of farmers, hardly have we ever heard or read anything about the condition of agricultural labourers. They are the victims of economic downturn in the rural sector. THE economy of Punjab today, embroiled in various economic issues, is showing signs of crisis in the agrarian sector. We often hear and read about the woes of the farmers who are committing suicides,...
More »Looks like the PDS works -Sohini Paul
-The Hindu Business Line There’s room for more awareness and organisation, but the number of people benefiting from fair price shops is growing Poor people in India depend heavily on the public distribution system. A recent survey by the National Council of Applied Economic Research found that more than 90 per cent ration card-holders in Below Poverty Line (BPL) / Priority Households (PHH) and the Antyodaya Anna Yojna category purchase foodgrain at...
More »Chained to debt in life and death -A Narayanamoorthy and P Alli
-The Hindu Business Line The only way this story of the Indian farmer will change is if policymakers ensure better remuneration for them The peasant (in India) is born in debt, lives in debt, dies in debt and bequeaths debt. This is what Sir Malcolm Darling, a famous British researcher and writer, wrote in 1925 after studying the condition of undivided Punjab’s peasants. Had Darling been alive today he would have rephrased his...
More »Most of rural India still opts for open defecation: NSS report
-The Hindu Jharkhand has lowest percentage of households with toilets while Sikkim has the most More than half the rural population of the country still opts for open defecation, says the recently released Swachhta Status Report by the National Sample Survey (NSS) Office. The nation-wide rapid survey was conducted during May-June 2015, concurrently with the 72nd round of the NSS. The survey was to track the government’s flagship programme, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan....
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