India's Public Distribution System (PDS) has been in a bad shape for decades, often thought to be beyond repair. Recent experience, however, suggests otherwise. Political will, increased transparency and community participation have led to an amazing revival of the PDS in Chhattisgarh though the state has only shown contempt for people's rights in other contexts… Somehow, the PDS became a political priority in Chhattisgarh and a decision was made to turn...
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Sonia writes to Manmohan on MNREGS wages by Vidya Subrahmaniam
Calls for “suitable directions” on paying statutory minimum wages A follow-up to NAC meeting, which felt there should be no deviation from statutory wages Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat Chief Ministers have also made a strong plea for minimum wages Sonia Gandhi has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging “suitable directions” on paying statutory minimum wages to workers employed under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). The November 11 letter is...
More »A Deadly Misdiagnosis by Michael Specter
Every afternoon at about four, a slight woman named Runi slips out of the cramped, airless room that she shares with her husband and their sixteen children. She skirts the drainage ditch in front of the building, then walks toward the pile of hardened dung cakes that people in this slum on the edge of the northeastern Indian city of Patna use for fuel. Dressed in a bright-yellow sari shot...
More »The hunger enigma by MS Swaminathan
The forthcoming India visit of the US President, Mr Barack Obama, accompanied by Mr Thomas J. Vilsack, secretary of agriculture, and Dr Rajiv Raj Shah, administrator, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), is significant in the context of strengthening the Indo-US partnership in the field of agriculture production and sustainable food security. Several related issues will be discussed in Mumbai on November 6 and November 7 where an agriculture...
More »No right to food yet! by Praful Bidwai
India has missed a historic opportunity to abolish hunger through a universal public distribution system (PDS), which entitles all citizens to affordable food. The National Advisory Council (NAC), a progressive body established by the United Progressive Alliance, was to draft such a law, but has recommended a Bill which greatly reduces the public's entitlements. This is a setback. India's annual per capita cereal consumption has fallen to 174 kg, lower than...
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