Any new system for the socio-economic progress of Dalits and other vulnerable sections must not lose sight of Special Component Plan goals. THE Planning Commission's “Approach to the 12th Five Year Plan” deals with the Scheduled Castes (S.C.s) briefly in a portion of Chapter 11 titled “Social and Regional Equity”. It, however, significantly mentions the need to devise a new system that can overcome the difficulties experienced with regard to the...
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Struggling to enter the BPL club by Jean Drèze
The Planning Commission's poverty straightjacket is but one of a series of obstacles faced by “aspirants” to the BPL status. Nothing illustrates the absurdity of current food policies more poignantly than the plight of Dablu Singh's family in Latehar district, Jharkhand. About two years ago Dablu, a young Adivasi who survived mainly from casual labour, fell from a roof at work and broke his back. He is paralysed for life and...
More »Govt to make poverty line more realistic
-The Times of India Facing a political storm over its poverty line prescription, the government decided to revise the Rs 32 a day expenditure criteria for urban population (Rs 26 for rural) by factoring in the 2009-10 National Sample Survey Organization report on household spend. The pittance outlined in the Planning Commission affidavit before the Supreme Court left the government squirming as the BJP and Left attacked it for framing poverty guidelines...
More »Opposition finds Hazare faults by Radhika Ramaseshan
The BJP has slammed the Centre for mishandling Anna Hazare’s protest but signalled that it is not entirely on the side of the agitators and will take a nuanced stance on their demands. The party said it rejected Hazare’s Jan Lokpal bill, would not take dictations from the Gandhian and his associates on a deadline to pass the bill and would not circumvent parliamentary procedures. The government has convened a meeting of...
More »Ending Indifference: A Law to Exile Hunger? by Harsh Mander
Can we agree in this country on a floor of human dignity below which we will not allow any human being to fall? No child, woman or man in this land will sleep hungry. No person shall be forced to sleep under the open sky. No parent shall send their child out to work instead of to school. And no one shall die because they cannot afford the cost of...
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