Closed mines and resultant unemployment are still stoking Naxalism in Saranda, a maiden jan adalat (public hearing) held 160km from the steel city insisted today, indicating that more needed to be done to make the much-touted central action plan for the red turf a long-lasting success. More than 1,000 villagers from the Maoist dens of Noamundi, Gua, Kiriburu and Barajamda among others, which fall in the mining belt of Saranda command...

Women and impoverished, illiterate tribals fall prey to Madhya Pradesh’s overweening family planning zeal Birth Control 1951 Family planning as a policy is launched in independent India 1978 Rechristened Family Welfare after the emergency 2000 National Population Policy aims at stable population by 2045 2010 Madhya Pradesh launches targeted family planning NPP says sterilisation should be last resort in family planning. *** When Shyam Lal* walked into a primary health centre at Rewa, a dusty little town in...

Is the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) a poverty buster? Or is it a job destroyer? The answer seems to be both, though the scheme of late, has been bedevilled by corruption and many states have lost their enthusiasm for it, forcing the rural development ministry to revamp the scheme last week (read here about the changes). While the scheme has been attacked for many reasons – bloating rural...

Nine gram sewaks have committed suicide in past one year due to work stress Gram sewaks in Maharashtra have refused to give in to the high-handedness of the administration for the implementation of National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) so that it can be projected as a success. Instead, they have decided to approach the high court to press for their demands like formation of a separate independent agency for the...

-The Economic Times The attempt of Central Information Commission (CIC), the final appellate authority for implementation of Right to Information (RTI) Act, to bring transparency in the functioning of ministries and autonomous bodies has come a cropper with the government refusing information to the panel itself. CIC has been facing a problem making public authorities (government departments, apex bodies, autonomous organisations and ministries) divulge details on how they are implementing RTI...