-The Financial Express The Odisha experience shows that PDS can play a pivotal role in bringing convergence and making India’s two important missions—food and nutrition security—successful in a short time. New Delhi: India’s public distribution system (PDS) is the largest food security programme in the world, which covers nearly 60% of the population and costs Rs 1.45 trillion—close to 1.4% of the national income. PDS has often been criticised for its structure,...

-Frontline.in The farce being played out in the name of Aadhaar has led to several deaths because it denies the poor their right to food and therefore life. THERE is no doubt that human life is cheap in India, perhaps more so now than ever before. The attacks, atrocities and killings of people from the minority communities and marginalised groups, which have now become so common, are particularly appalling because they reflect...

-TheWire.in Even with apparent deformities to their bodies, many leprosy-affected individuals are not recognised as ‘disabled’ by the state health department. Vijayawada/ Guntur: Kodavalli Ramadevi avoids visiting the fair price shop in Godugu Vari Gudem village at Nuzwid mandal in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh at the beginning of the month to collect her rations. She waits for at least ten days every month, just to ensure that everyone in the...

-Scroll.in Administrations are not supposed to cut off rations but health officials seem to think that the threat will work. Experts denounce the measure. “Tikkakaran nahin toh khadyadhan nahin.” No vaccination, no ration. Rajwanti Devi Jaiswal, an Accredited Social Health Activist or ASHA in Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich district repeated the slogan so often that it sounded like a chant. The district has one of the lowest child immunisation rates in India –...

-Right to Food Jharkhand Ranchi (Jharkhand): Close to 1,000 NREGA workers and other rural labourers converged to Birsa Chowk from 12 districts of Jharkhand today and sat on dharna to protest against repeated attacks on their right to food and right to work. The event was jointly organised by Right to Food Campaign Jharkhand and NREGA Watch.     The dharna was prompted by a series of recent starvation deaths in Jharkhand. The...