What kept Prime Minister Manmohan Singh busy after securing minister A Raja’s resignation on the night of November 14 last year? He was writing a reply to National Advisory Council chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s letter on the practice of manual scavenging. On November 15, he wrote to her that he was asking the Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment to “examine how to strengthen” implementation of the Employment of Manual Scavengers and...
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Let’s labour over it by Harsh Mander
Herding cattle and weaving carpets, on city waste-heaps, at traffic lights, in roadside eateries, in farms and in factories, in brick kilns and coal mines, in brothels and in our homes, children of the poor work at an age when our own are in school or at play. What is remarkable is not just our collective acceptance of such diverging destinies of children merely because of the accident of where they...
More »No displacement, resettle slum dwellers where they live: NAC by Smita Gupta
At a time that land in urban centres, especially in the big metropolitan cities, is at a premium, a Working Group of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) has suggested that, as far as possible, slum dwellers should be resettled at the spot where they are currently living, rather than displacing them, so that they continue to remain close to their places of work. NAC sources said the Working...
More »NCPRI brainstorms Grievance Redress, Whistleblower Protection by Vidya Subrahmanianm
The National Campaign for the People's Right to Information (NCPRI), which — along with other civil society groups — held a two-day convention here on its draft Bills on Grievance Redress and Whistleblower Protection, has urged the government immediately to put up the drafts for wide public consultation. Earlier this year, the NCPRI unveiled a “Basket of Lokpal measures” intended to address corruption and grievances relating to delivery of services. Among...
More »NAC to meet on Oct 21
-PTI After a brief hiatus, Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council is all set to get back into action by taking up the contentious issue of poverty indicators at its meeting next week. The meeting of the NAC is scheduled to take place on October 21 when it is expected to discuss the criteria for determination of poverty, an issue that had kicked up a storm following an affidavit filed by the...
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