-OpenTheMagazine.com From Working to make Kutch villages self-sufficient to investing in traditional practices in the Himalayas to digging wells in Bengaluru, India’s frontline fighters are making water scarcity a thing of the past GAZALA PAUL, 56 AHMEDABAD: MAKING VILLAGES SELF-SUFFICIENT “If I can save water at the individual level by using water sparingly and not allowing others to waste, that is the beginning,” says Gazala Paul. But she has been doing much more...

-The Hindu Pew Research report suggests middle class may have shrunk by 30% and number of poor risen by 7.5 crore India’s middle class may have shrunk by a third due to 2020’s pandemic-driven recession, while the number of poor people — earning less than ₹150 per day — more than doubled, according to an analysis by the Pew Research Center. In a comparison, Chinese incomes remained relatively unshaken, with just a...

-The Indian Express The state must prioritise removing malnutrition, give uncompromising priority to improving primary health infrastructure In 1947, post-colonial India set off with the ambition of building a modern state on the principles of equality where citizens, by virtue of their birth in the country, would be entitled to a life of dignity. While the Constitution provided the rights to life, liberty, nutritional standards and maternity care, it did not explicitly...

-The Hindu ‘Not paying minimum wages amounts to forced labour’ VISAKHAPATNAM: The Human Rights Forum (HRF) and Samalochana Association expressed their disappointment over the quantum of increase in the wage rate of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. “The increase in wages by a meagre ₹8, from the existing ₹237 to ₹245 a day, is measly and amounts to mere eyewash. We are concerned about...

-The Hindu They say almost a year after COVID-19-induced lockdown, govt. has not kept its promises A group of hawkers, sex Workers, domestic Workers, rescued bonded labourers and other unorganised Workers gathered at Jantar Mantar here on Thursday, almost a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19, setting off a crisis for migrant Workers, to demand that the government fulfil the promises made during...