Selective abortion of girls in India prevented about 4.2 million to 12.1 million girls from being born between 1980 and 2010, with the largest number of girls being aborted in the 1990s, a latest survey has shown. Selective abortion of girls, especially for pregnancies after a firstborn girl, has increased substantially in India. Most of India's population now lives in States where selective abortion is common, says the study “Trends in...

-The Hindu   “surveys leading to move are misleading, towing a pre-planned agenda” Opposing the Delhi Government's move to extend a pilot project in the Capital for providing cash subsidies in place of subsidised foodgrains for the needy, a group of non-government organisations led by social activist Arvind Kejriwal has said the decision is “questionable” and that the surveys conducted ahead of the project's implementation were “misleading”. One of these surveys conducted by...

-The Indian Express   Indian government uses public funds to alleviate, prevent and end poverty; but, unarguably, does so inefficiently. A new report from the World Bank for the Planning Commission on India’s “social protection” programmes outlines the scope of the failure and provides a few answers. Those programmes can be divided into three kinds, the report argues: those that prevent a slide into poverty, like social security and insurance schemes; those...

-PTI   The government’s flagship rural job guarantee scheme is innovative and has achieved quite high coverage but faces challenges like uneven implementation across states and “some evidence” of leakage of funds, a new World Bank report says. The study ‘Social Protection for a Changing India’ also says ensuring higher degree of awareness among people about the process of applying for work under the scheme and a strong monitoring and evaluation system...

Exercise begins in June, but beneficiaries of govt schemes will still be those identified as poor by Plan panel India has embarked on an exerciseto identify the poor that will in reality end up choosing who will be eligible for benefits and who won’t, an outcome that could be controversial. The Union cabinet on Thursday approved the launch in June of a census to identify those living below the poverty line (BPL),...