The United Nations on 23 October, 2009 took a step towards helping the billion people around the world suffering from hunger achieve access to adequate food with the publication of a ‘how-to’ guide providing the tools for governments, institutions and civil society to assert this basic human right. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) has released a comprehensive six-volume set of guidelines, which it calls a “toolbox,” containing hands-on advice...

The United Nations’ Human Development Report of 2009 paints an idyllic picture of migrations. THE recently released United Nations Development Report-2009, titled “Overcoming Barriers: Human Mobility and Development”, presents a strong case for governments all over the world to encourage human mobility. Migrations, including those of low-skilled workforce, pay dividends all round, the report says. However, it does not quite attempt to seriously understand why people migrate, sometimes subjecting themselves...

Breaking decades of silence over unjust social norms, widowed, abandoned and destitute women from different states in India came together at the national capital to launch the National Forum for Single Women's Rights to demand food, healthcare, employment and rights to property. It has been more than eight years since the January 2001 earthquake struck the Indian state of Gujarat, but Hansa Rathore still cannot quite shake off memories of...

Seven rounds of trade talks between the EU and India have been concluded without any negotiating texts or positions of either party being made public.  The widespread optimism about the possible signing of the India-European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) sometime in 2010 fails to take into account the many thorny issues that remain to be resolved. Not the least of them are the tariff negotiations on goods and...

Right to Information Act completes four years of its enactment  Democratic struggle is an integral part of social change, says Chief Information Commissioner ‘Transparency and accountability are integral to the success of Right to Information’ When Mazloom Nadaf was sanctioned Rs.25,000 by the gram panchayat under the Indira Niwas Yojana, he knew little of the struggle that awaited him. This 70-year-old rickshaw puller from Bihar’s Madhubani district begged and pleaded...