-The Hindu Collector asks people to have a blueprint for making their village free from open defecation Vellore (Tamil Nadu): Gram sabhas conducted four times in a year - on Republic Day, May Day, Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanthi - are meant to be an open forum to enable public to demand schemes, especially on basic amenities required for the villages and benefits from welfare schemes. But, in reality, the public, especially...

-The Hindu     Deep-rooted caste biases and the brazen disregard by civic authorities of court judgments are the main reason for the frequent deaths of sewerage workers across the country Earlier this month, a group of men set forth to unblock a drain sewer in the basement of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in Delhi. Two of the men, Ashok and Chhotu, entered the sewer but did not return....

-Live Mint Debates on malnutrition ignore links with sanitation and disease and the burdens these impose on children Children in India are among the shortest in the world. Widespread child stunting is a human development tragedy. This is not because there is anything wrong with being short or anything inherently good about being tall. The tragedy is because of what makes children short: we all have different genetic potential heights, but...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Don't enter the kitchen. Don't wash your hair. Don't touch that bottle of pickle. Improvements in level of education and age notwithstanding, many Indian women still end up imposing these and several other restrictions on themselves every month. The belief that the menstrual cycle renders them impure is the root cause behind such impositions. Three young entrepreneurs are now working to bring out a comic...

-Greater Kashmir Jammu: Notwithstanding the pitiable condition of rural sanitation across J&K, the state government has not been able to utilize generous central funding under Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), which has now been renamed as Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (NBA), in the past three years. In the year 2010-11, out of total available funds of Rs 2373.18 lakhs, the concerned state government agencies could expend only Rs 1715.26 lakhs. The situation noticed a...