In the season of Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council too is mounting pressure on the Centre to accept its recommendations on various social sector legislations. Over the past one month, the council has handed in its versions of the food security and communal violence bills as well as four notes on land acquisition, the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), protection of street vendors and the...

At a time when civil society groups are playing an adversarial role in relation to the Union government, those civil society members who have been given an institutional role in the government have become pro-active: in the last few days, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) has written three letters to the government on a range of social sector issues. The three communications relate to the NAC's recommendations on a...

A Delhi survey paints a disturbing picture Roofless childhood     * There are 51,000 street children in Delhi; 20% are girls.     * 70% are on the street despite having a home in Delhi     * 50.5% are illiterate. 87% earn a living—20% as ragpickers, 15.8% as street vendors, 15% by begging     * Over 50% have suffered verbal, physical or sexual abuse     * Fewer than 20% have ID cards or birth certificates, and...

In a stark reminder of the exploitation of street children, a new study has found that one out of every five street urchins in Delhi is a rag picker. With most adults unwilling to do the work of rummaging through the city's garbage, an overwhelming number of children have been driven to do it. About 15% children are street vendors, while 15% depend on begging for their living. With the country...

We should be grateful to Anna Hazare for dedicating his life to the people and battling for accountability in governance. Millions look to him for inspiration and guidance. We are all sick of mismanagement, venality and the lack of accountability that plague not only governance but also other institutions, including many NGOs that call themselves “civil society” institutions, the term made fashionable by international donor agencies. The support base of this...