-The Hindu Denying basic amenities to residents of ‘unrecognised' slums is an affront to their dignity; resettling them fails to address their concerns and is unviable financially Since 2005, the Central government has given significant amounts of money to the States to improve conditions for the country's urban poor, first under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) and more recently through the slow-moving Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY). Unfortunately, very few...

-The Hindu In addition to ailments caused by poverty, salt pan workers across the country suffer from several occupational diseases, including chronic dermatitis, loss of vision and hypothyroidism In Adivasi Colony, a remote hamlet off the road from Vedaranyam to Kodikarai in Tamil Nadu, most of the adults in the 200-odd households work in salt manufacturing. They prepare salt pans manually, irrigate them with saline water which is three times saltier than...

-The United Nations Efficient, well-managed and sustainable food systems are essential to end hunger and malnutrition as well as protect the environment, United Nations officials stressed today, marking World Food Day. "The key to better nutrition, and ultimately to ensuring each person's right to food, lies in better food systems - smarter approaches, policies and investments encompassing the environment, people, institutions and processes by which agricultural products are produced, processed and brought...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a worrying trend, condom use in India has dropped by 38% in six years - from 2.6 crore in 2006-07 to 1.6 crore in 2010-11. Health ministry data shows that 21 of the 28 states, including Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have registered a decline in the use of this contraceptive, setting off alarms among policymakers. Health experts said with India's population is tipped to...

-IANS NEW DELHI: Breaking the myth that internal migration is burdening the cities, a new study says migrants are in fact contributing largely to the gross domestic product (GDP) and proving to be a subsidy. A Unesco report on social inclusion of internal migrants in India released on Thursday says migrants are looked upon as "outsiders" and considered a burden, but the fact is that internal migrants contribute cheap labour for manufacturing...