The flexipool of National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) funds has been the juiciest target for fund plunderers. The head under which huge budget was earmarked for activities like construction and strengthening of healthcare facilities, provided ample scope for pilferage. The pattern of spending on infrastructure building and maintenance proves how extravagant UP has been on this count. Every single year, since the inception of the NRHM in 2005-06, the state...

If there is one government programme that is beyond scrutiny, it surely is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). The scheme, which has attracted criticism on economic grounds by commentators and economists alike, has ample political backing. While the intent behind the scheme is beyond reproach, in practice, it’s yet to meet its promise. This is partly due to problems during implementation. Chief among this is the level...

Though it remains susceptible to leakages and can do with greater oversight, the National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (NREGS) appears to have boosted rural incomes by providing job seekers at least 100 days' guaranteed labour every financial year. That's why the Union rural development ministry's reported advisory to states to 'informally' suspend NREGS operations during peak farming season isn't a very good idea. For starters, the move would be legally...

Last week, the census commissioner released the second round of data, which showed that the move towards towns and cities received a fresh impetus in the decade ended 2011, as a result of which the country achieved a laudable milestone: a little under one in three Indians now lives in areas classified as urban, reversing a lull apparent in the previous two decades. This is something to be welcomed as in...

Nobel laureate Amartya Sen's strong criticism of political India for its gross neglect of elementary education over the decades has revived the debate on the quality of school education and also the scope of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 in addressing the problem of “out-of-school” children, who are estimated to number about 14 crore. Speaking at a university function recently in New Delhi, the...