-Economic and Political Weekly   While the transformation of rural gender inequalities was not an intended goal of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, this study draws on evidence from two villages in western Tamil Nadu to show how the scheme has benefited rural women in particular. Major attractions of the MGNREGA work include local availability through the year, it being perceived as relatively "easy" work with fixed, regular, gender...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Around two in five men in India - nearly 40.7% - were found to hold 'rigid and discriminatory' gender views. This segment believes women to be inferior. Such men are very controlling. They tend to dictate whom the wives can meet and do not allow participation in decision-making. Further, men who hold the most rigid views of masculinity are three times more likely to physically abuse their...

-Newsclick.in Recent studies have shown that even as India fares better than many developing regions of the world on several indicators of growth and development such as GDP, per capita, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), literacy, life expectancy, etc., the number of malnourished children in India is significantly high. What explains this paradox? The Union Cabinet recently approved a multi-sectoral nutritional programme proposed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to reduce...

-The Hindu In richer and poorer States, differing periods of danger for girl children: data Last year, 74,000 more girls under the age of 5 than boys died in India, numbers for which there is no biological explanation, researchers say. Moreover, while many richer States abort female foetuses at a higher rate than some poorer States, once the child is born, many poorer States have a worse record in ensuring her survival,...

Bihar Government's programme of distributing bicycles to school girls may be a modest intervention but is leading to big changes. A new research-based paper, brought out in August 2013, corroborates the success of the programme and testifies that it is leading to improved school enrollment of girls and arresting their dropout rates (See links below to read full paper and earlier studies on the subject).   Based on econometric and statistical models,...