-Outlook Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections due next year, the UPA government has finalised a draft Bill for providing homes to the homeless in rural areas. The draft of the National Right to Homestead Bill, 2013, prepared by the Rural Development ministry, is almost ready for inter-ministerial consultation, official sources said today According to the eleventh plan document, an estimated 13 to 18 million families in rural India are landless, of which...

-The Hindu 144 families desperately seek temporary shelter Bangalore: Dozens of slum-dwellers from Laggere, who were recently displaced from their homes as part of a slum rejuvenation project, staged a protest outside the office of the Karnataka Slum Development Board here on Thursday demanding immediate relief. Over a fortnight ago, bulldozers hired by the board razed 144 huts in the Lakshmidevi slum in Laggere, displacing at least 500 people. The demolition drive was...

-First Post While Finance Minister P Chidambaram played the knight in the shining armour role to the hilt, going all out to woo the Indian woman – with an all-woman bank, the ‘Nirbhaya’ fund and an empathetic lecture on the girl child- after the shock value wears out, we are only left with measures which at best might only scrape the tip of the iceberg that is women’s development and security...

-The Hindu Draft Bill to be discussed on Tuesday After legislating the Right to Information and Education — and making a stab at the Right to Work and Food through the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and the Food Security Act respectively — the government’s next step seems to be aimed at legally upholding the right to a home of your own. On Tuesday, a task force set up by the...

-The Hindu Sulabh International, a non governmental organisation (NGO), has decided to double the monthly allowance of destitute, widowed women from this month to dissuade them from begging. The move will benefit 700-odd widows residing in five government-run old age homes here. In addition, the women will be taught Hindi, English and Bengali by trained teachers so that they are able to sign and the money can be directly transferred to their...