Bihar is one of the poorest performing States in the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGREGS), noted a team of activists and researchers led by social scientist Jean Dreze. Professor Dreze, along with activists Ashish Ranjan and Kamayani Swami of the Jan Jagran Abhiyan (JJA), and economist Reetika Khera, on Wednesday alerted Chief Minister Nitish Kumar about the dismal state of affairs. According to data presented by the team, Bihar lags...

“She was thrown in the garbage dump outside the village for dogs that ate her. Her only fault — she was the fourth girl born in a poor family,” said Harshinder Kaur, paediatric doctor here, recalling the first time she witnessed discrimination against female infants in Punjab's rural side. “Over a decade ago, I couldn't save that infant and ever since I try to speak for the girls who never...

The watchword of India’s decennial population census for 2011 is “Our Census, Our Future”. By focusing on the future the managers of Census 2011 have wisely tried to steer away from the past in enumerating the present. Demographers and social scientists will understandably use the data to analyse changes in the economy and society since the last census of 2001. But Census 2011 is more about the future than the...

With five years to go before the deadline for halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization (WHO) warn in a report released today that without stepped-up efforts, nearly one billion people will be overlooked. “We all recognize the vital importance of water and sanitation to human health and well-being and their role...

Technology is helping public sector banks find customers in rural India. This is part of the Centre’s efforts to include villages in the organized financial system; to ensure they are not cheated of their wages. Pilots show promise   The current state of rural banking in the country is poor. A recent report, by the National Sample Survey Organization, revealed that 51.4 per cent of the 89.3 million total farmer households in...