-Outlook Build toilets. But more important, get communities to change ways. Vidya Balan, the Bollywood star and ambassador of the Indian government's proGramme for building household toilets, asks the mother-in-law who is busy toying with her bahu's ghunghat at the wedding ceremony: "Do you have a toilet at home for the daughter-in-law to use?" Mum-in-law replies: "No." Vidya then asks her, "Then why are you extending her ghunghat so much when you...
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Electrified, but without electricity -Rahul Tongia
-The Hindu India needs a meaningful electricity service, not merely a wire connection to every household No one would believe that simply owning a smart phone would be enough to go online and get connected - one would still need a data connection for that to happen. Similarly, it is time that we added a similar level of service to define electrification, a focus area for the government. A decade ago, a village...
More »Gruelling Gram -GVR Subba Rao
-The Hindu With no takers for their produce, bengal Gram farmers are caught between losses and auction notices issued by banks for loan recovery VIJAYAWADA (Andhra Pradesh): The cold storages in Andhra Pradesh are full to the brim with bengal Gram stocks, with the farmers finding no takers for the produce. Close to 17.23 lakh quintals of bengal Gram, mostly Kabul variety, is lying in cold storages as there is no remunerative...
More »The Dirty Truth about Sanitation -TR Raghunandan
-Accountability Initiative/ RaghuBytes Unless you have a blocked nose, I strongly suggest that you do not drive from Bhubaneshwar the capital of Orissa, to Kandamahal, a remote tribal district, particularly in the evenings. At twilight, when you begin to wind into the interior, you are greeted with the sight of the behinds of the entire population squatting on the roadside, faces turned away and shitting. We quickly wound up the windows...
More »Where school means 8 hours of holding back from going to toilet -Pritha Chatterjee
-The Indian Express Mewat (Haryana): Mewat district Villages: 443 Population: 10.9 lakh Literacy: 56.1% (women 37.6%) Sanitation status: Lack of toilets in schools identified as main reason for high dropout among girls, over a thousand toilets built in 2008-12. Rajakiya Kanya Madhyamik Pathshala in Mewat district's Shah Chaukha village has 786 girls on the rolls between nursery and Class VIII. In 2008, a toilet was constructed, but within months, it shut down for lack of...
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