IT WAS a windfall five years ago that taught Panchali Satyavva the power of a lie. It happened one Monday afternoon in Someshwar village of Nizamabad district in Andhra Pradesh. It was raining in sheets and she had just placed a bucket under the steady trickle of water from the roof of her hut. Two men were at her door, holding umbrellas and offering her an unsolicited Rs. 5,000. They...

Terming as “very serious” the diseases suspected to have been caused by the use of Endosulfan in the Plantation Corporation of Kerala's cashew estates in the district, the National Human Rights Commission has recommended setting up a multi super-specialty hospital here to treat the victims. The health situation arising out of the use of Endosulfan on the PCK land is very serious and all agencies, including the government, people's representatives and...

While the high-profile Adarsh land and housing scam has brought Mumbai's near-lawless urban development into focus, a silent malnutrition crisis in the city points also to a grotesque imbalance in people's access to resources and a collapse of social services. At least 16 children under six years have died from malnutrition and related illnesses from April this year in just one locality of the city - Shivaji Nagar in Govandi,...

South Asia in general and India in particular have the dubious distinction of standing out for wrong reasons every time a new global poverty report is released. We not only have the largest number of underweight children, a very high maternal mortality rate and the world’s highest number of out of school children but we also top the global malnutrition chart. (See links below for more details)  However the 2011 United...

The government on Tuesday introduced in the Lok Sabha a bill aimed at preventing sexual harassment of women at workplace in various forms, including implied or overt promise of preferential treatment or threat or interference in her work through intimidation. The Protection of Women Against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010, provides for mandatory setting up an internal committee by a company or any other institute to probe a written...