-The Hindu Launched in 2006 by the JD(U)-BJP government at the time, the scheme provided money to all girls who enrolled in Class IX through their schools to buy themselves a cycle. The first independent, scientific evaluation of the impact of Bihar's cycles-for-girls programme has shown that the scheme significantly improved female school enrolment and substantially reduced the gender GAP in secondary school enrolment. The study, by Karthik Muralidharan, an economist at...
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London School of Economics hails Bihar's bicycle policy -Kounteya Sinha
-The Times of India LONDON: London School of Economics' Ideas for Growth conference on Monday hailed the Bihar government's 'bicycles-to-girls' policy as one that can be imitated globally. Bihar witnessed a 30% increase in school attendance by girls in just one year, thanks to the bicycles policy. With a high school dropout rate among girls, the state government had rolled out the policy under which every 14-year-old schoolgirl was given money to...
More »Health food for rupee 1-Sreelatha Menon
-The Business Standard The food security Act's provision for millets to every household is a magic bullet to attack malnutrition The food security Act has sought to address a nutritional imbalance in the public distribution system (PDS). The Act, by providing for a kg of millet per person at Rs 1/kg, would be a big step towards filling a wide GAP in nutrition caused by the popularisation of cereals at the cost of...
More »Rural Poverty and the Public Distribution System -Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera
-eSocialSciences.com Presented are estimates of the impact of India's Public Distribution System on rural poverty, using National Sample Survey data for 2009-10 and official poverty lines. At the all-India level, the PDS is estimated to reduce the poverty-GAP index of rural poverty by 18 to 22 percent. The corresponding figures are much larger for states with a well-functioning PDS, e.g. 61 to 83 per cent in Tamil Nadu and 39 to...
More »India's food security act: Myths and reality-Vandana Shiva
-Al Jazeera The reforms promoted by Prime Minister Singh do not go far enough to help food production and the hungry. The debate on the Food Security Act is based on myths on both sides. The government is propagating the myth that it is the largest anti-poverty and anti-hunger programme ever introduced anywhere in the world. The programme is being heralded as Sonia Gandhi's dream project, and billed as a miracle solution...
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