The government has readied the draft of its promised Food Security Act but the bare provisions appear to fall short of the pledge on many counts. It could not only trigger a face-off with the states but also cause heartburn to the Supreme Court and displease Congress chief Sonia Gandhi who had prepared a draft and sent it to the Prime Minister's Office last June. The Bill is a result...

Ten journalists have been selected to spend time with rural communities, understand their anxieties and specialise in covering the country’s rural crises, through an initiative of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies. The recipients of the Inclusive Media Fellowship are: Mahim Pratap Singh of The Hindu (to work on the impact of distress migration on nutrition security and livelihoods in five districts of Orissa), Joaquim Fernandes of The...

Statistical poverty lines should not become real-life eligibility criteria for food entitlements.  Nothing is easier than to recognise a poor person when you see him or her. Yet the task of identifying and counting the poor seems to elude the country's best experts. Take for instance the “headcount” of rural poverty — the proportion of the rural population below the poverty line. At least four alternative figures are available: 28...

The Centre has finalised guidelines that pave the way for a wide range of works on private land under the rural job scheme. The beneficiaries will be small and marginal farmers across all categories, Scheduled Castes and Tribes and families below the poverty line (BPL). The list of works under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is likely to include construction of wells, ponds, ground-water works, levelling and shaping of...

Likely to be rolled out gradually, in 3 to 6 months from now  Once fully implemented, the scheme may touch the lives of 20 crore women “Highly subsidised” sanitary napkins will be supplied to women above poverty line To boost female health and hygiene in rural India, the Union government is working on a scheme to provide women living below poverty line (BPL) with free sanitary napkins. The scheme, which will eventually...