The hunger and malnutrition situation in the country has shown marginal improvement, according to the HUNGaMA report. ONE area that has always bothered policymakers in a growth-obsessed economy is the state of the social sector, in particular figures indicating the numbers of people going hungry or are homeless and children who are out of school, the poor nutritional status of women and children, and the high infant and maternal mortality rates....

When the Right to Education Act was enforced in April 2010, it looked like millions of schoolchildren could dare to dream. The Act guarantees access to schools, a target that has been met, with the enrolment rate at 90% among children in first grade. The Act demands schools to meet certain requirements, including infrastructure (building, libra-ry, kitchen, toilets), teacher-student ratio, teaching hours etc. However, far from helping improve the situation,...

The Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council has recommended a Rs 4,250 crore programme to provide shelters and other amenities to homeless in Class 1 cities in the country. The council has suggested the National Programme for Shelters and Other Services for Urban Homeless to set up 6,800 permanent shelters for around 3 lakh homeless - 15% of the estimated population of people living in the open across urban India. The council, moving...

Calling for urgent measures to provide sanitation facility across the country, Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh has pointed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that in addition to malnutrition another distressing national shame which India can't live with is open defecation. Mr. Ramesh, who also controls the Department of Drinking Water Supply which implements sanitation programme, has written a letter to the Prime Minister urging him to change the government's...

A first-ever water pollution audit carried out by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has pegged Jharkhand at the bottom of the performance chart with most river conservation projects lying incomplete in the state. According to the report, Performance Audit of Water Pollution in India, the Ganga, Damodar and Subernarekha were selected for pollution abatement projects in Jharkhand under the National River Conservation Programme (NRCP), which was launched in 1995. As part...