Erratic power supply, poverty bane of Marathwada region  About four lakh people migrate every year to work as sugarcane cutters Sugar factories contribute to water scarcity DHAITANA (Beed district): The Assembly elections are not the reason for excitement in this village located in the backward Marathwada region of Maharashtra. It’s water. In the afternoon heat, women and children are running towards the only source of water located outside sarpanch Achyut Gangane’s house....

  Several civil society and trade union organizations are getting together in Delhi over the next week to protest against the proposed cash for food scheme of the Delhi Government and to press for a more fair and equitable criterion of identification of BPL families, in the National Capital. BPL families living in slums areas, Jhuggies & unauthorized colonies are expected to participate in big numbers, say the organizers. Led...

We normally assume that malnutrition is a disease of the poorer states, which the richer states are in the process of curing. It now transpires that malnutrition among women and child undernourishment, two essential markers of human development, are rampant in richer states as well. States with high per capita incomes such as Gujarat and Haryana have performed poorly in transforming the growth they have experienced into the well-being of...

The issue is not monitoring, but the administrative structure itself, at the district and village levels The Planning Commission has recently put out the results of an evaluation conducted by it on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), after a survey of 20 districts. This is the most comprehensive official evaluation so far, and it makes interesting reading, not just in terms of the performance of the scheme, but...

A food security law will be meaningful only if it is based on universal food provision and ensures that every citizen’s nutritional needs are met. At an outlet of the public distribution system in Erode, Tamil Nadu. States such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have defined BPL in such an inclusive way that the vast majority of the population is included, which makes their food distribution schemes...