A new study on nutritional challenges has painted a grim picture of the current Indian scenario where over 50% of child deaths are caused due to malnutrition. Concerned over the high number of child deaths, the ministry of women and child development (WCD) plans to strengthen nutritional surveillance by mapping undernourished endemic zones and identifying "high risk and vulnerable districts". The report recommends developing a nutrition surveillance system to identify...

Until two years ago, Vimla had never even considered stepping out of her house for work. Women in her part of the world didn’t work. Now, she doesn’t just work, but also operates a bank account, participates in household decisions, and is learning two of the Rs (reading and writing). The difference is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) that was launched in Vimla’s village in 2008....

Nahrani, a 38-year-old in Lalitpur, a village 30km from Jhansi, has an all-too-familiar tale to tell: a recently deceased husband; the lack of a ration card which promises access to free or inexpensive food; and a village without water, power, schools or health centres. Not one child from the 50-odd families in this village goes to school. The menfolk are perennially drifting, looking for jobs. And no one has heard...

Domestic helps, the faceless engine without which daily life will grind to a halt in India, are finally set to get the right to a weekly off and other benefits most citizens take for granted. The Centre is coming up with a policy that stipulates the compulsory weekly off for domestic helps and a few more benefits. Some homes do already extend a few of these benefits but countless others do...

Many projects for supplying water in Vidarbha remain on paper, though the money allotted is very real. Sarada Badre and her daughters have stopped their bi-weekly 20-km walking trips. That was their routine for a while. “The orange trees have withered and there's no water anyway,” says Saradabai at her home in Sirasgaon village in Amravati district. In theory, watering their 214 orange trees shouldn't be too hard. Though the nearby...