The state has done precious little to improve the lot of agriculture workers. Agricultural wage workers (AWW) earn their livelihood by working for wages in the agriculture sector. In India, AWWs are the second largest group of all workers, after owner-cultivators or farmers. Of the workforce of 402 million, AWWs are at least 110 million. Wage work in the agriculture sector has always been considered a low-status occupation in India, as agriculture...
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Falling Through The Cracks by Ananthapriya Subramanian
Two stories on two days, both from Delhi and both shocking in their revelations. Both involved child abuse. The first story was about a university professor on the run, allegedly after it came to light that he had employed a 10-year-old boy in his house, and worse, regularly beat him. The second story was even more mind-numbing in its details. Sanjana (name changed to protect identity), a 14-year-old girl, is...
More »Fixing poverty line at Rs 32 per capita/day doesnt even guarantee a bare subsistence by Raghav Gaiha & Vani S Kulkarni
-The Economic Times The UPA government - especially the Planning Commission - has been taken to task for fixing a poverty line at a level (Rs 32 per capita/day in urban areas) that does not even guarantee a bare subsistence. In the medley of scathing critiques and rebuttals, three strands of arguments seem dominant. One is that the poverty line is utterly unrealistic as a measure of subsistence requirements of food, health...
More »We can't go into safety of all nuclear plants: CJI by J Venkatesan
Bench says it's not averse to idea of setting up independent regulatory body The Supreme Court on Friday indicated that it would not go into the safety aspects of all nuclear plants in the country and all such concerns could be addressed to respective High Courts. A Bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justice Swatanter Kumar, however, said it was not averse to going into the issue of setting up an...
More »Riot cop who battled state vendetta by Basant Rawat
The Gujarat government had sacked an employee in connection with the riot case that led to 31 life terms yesterday — not the three among the accused but one who became a key prosecution witness. It was police constable Munsaf Khan, who had not only identified several key accused in the Sardarpura massacre of 33 Muslims but exposed the rioter-police collusion. Khan’s victimisation partly mirrors that of another whistleblower policeman, IPS officer...
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