Of late, a childhood friend's 80-year-old mother has taken to writing. Emboldened by her single-mindedness, memories dulled by a lifetime of contingencies now respond readily to the daily rustle of pen on paper. One memory stands out in Surjit Kaur's mind. In 1957, as a fresh eyed schoolteacher from Delhi she went on an educational tour to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. It was 10 years after Independence...

-The United Nations The number of displaced persons worldwide will significantly grow over the next ten years due to factors such as conflict, natural disasters and climate change, according to the flagship publication of the United Nations refugee agency, launched today, which stresses that international solidarity is needed to address the issue. “The world is creating displacement faster than it is producing solutions, and this means one thing only: More people trapped...

Over 2000 impoverished Burmese asylum-seekers from across India, camping on the streets of Delhi pleading for refugee status were dealt a double whammy. On Tuesday afternoon, even as a delegation of Burmese met UN officials to sort out their problems, they were forced out of their temporary shelter in Vasant Kunj by police, dumped into buses and rickshaws and told to find their way home. To make matters worse, their...

Twenty-seven-year-old Amina (name changed) is in the eighth month of her pregnancy. But this immigrant from the Rohingya community from Myanmar is more worried about getting a shelter over her head than the bundle of joy she would be holding in her arms very soon. She is among the 2,500-odd Rohingya Refugees who were camping at Vasant Vihar before they moved to Sultan Garhi on May 8. They not only lack...

PDS is getting computerised, but documents still come in between the needy and food security The Delhi government’s Food and Supplies Department is computerising its database to ensure ration card holders get their entitlements without fail. But it does not have a clue as to how the needy can get ration cards under the Public Distribution System (PDS). Or, it has not used any technology to reach the needy. Getting a...