-Live Mint Andhra Pradesh's experience with social audits holds important lessons for the Congress's empowerment agenda At the heart of the Congress party's narrative on the rights-based welfare state is the idea that rights laws, to quote Sonia Gandhi, "put pressure on the executive to be more responsive and accountable" and in doing so bring about an "empowerment revolution". To enable this revolution, rights laws have had built into them procedural...

-The Hindu     While the stagnation in women's ability to control their own fate is disappointing, some of the other gender indicators are downright alarming On International Women's Day, the Election Commission of India held a special campaign to bring women voters to the polls. Although men and women vote at a more or less similar rate in State elections, women are 6-8 percentage points behind in the Lok Sabha elections where national...

-The Hindu     The aim of the Unique Identification Number was to make access to bank accounts easier but the first Aadhaar card holder is still not eligible for loans In September 2010, Ranjana Sonawane became the first person in the country to get an Aadhaar card when the Unique Identity (UID) project was flagged off with much fanfare in Tembhli village in Maharashtra. But today, what is unmistakeable is the disappointment the tribal...

-The Indian Express The average days of employment per household under the MNREGS have been less than 50 a year. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi again touted the MNREGS scheme as one of the UPA government's leading achievements, in his interview to PTI on Sunday. However, Ministry of Rural Development data shows that households have not got work for even half of the mandated 100 days annually since the flagship rural job guarantee...

-Sify.com A survey said 76 per cent of farmers would prefer to do other work, while 60 per cent wanted their children to migrate to and settle in a city. These are a grim reminder of the condition of the 120-million farmer households in India. The survey, by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies and Lokniti for Bharat Krishak Samaj, of 5,000 farmer households across 137 districts in 18 states...