-GovernanceNow.com A report on public hearing at in Gumla of Jharkhand Jharkhand has reached a make-or-break point in the battle against hunger. For the first time, the National Food Security Act (NFSA) makes it possible to ensure that no one sleeps on an empty stomach. Many people, however, are still struggling to secure their entitlements under the Act. By way of reality check, a careful survey of NFSA was recently completed...

-Down to Earth Communities are coming together in Jharkhand to create vigilance mechanisms to enforce food entitlement programmes Five-year-old Lalita and Kundan used to spend most of their day under a banyan tree in Pandanberha village in Deogarh district, Jharkhand. There was no anganwadi (child day care centre) or a playschool for more than 90 children in the village. There were also 14 pregnant and six lactating mothers who were deprived...

-The Hindu A young girl in Jharkhand committed suicide because her father refused to build a toilet for her. When will the Indian male’s insensitivity to women’s basic needs change? Indian men urgently need basic ethical education. Since the 19th century, women’s education has been a progressive obsession with enlightened Indian social reformers. Although much remains to be done to get anywhere close to equal access to education for the genders, there...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Bihar and Jharkhand are the most laggard among states when it comes to implementing midday meals in schools, child services and other social initiatives, reveals a recent study. In all, the study by IIT-Delhi identified Bihar and Jharkhand as the worst performers for five social welfare programmes which also include the public distribution system, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act and social security pensions. The study, which covered 10...

-Down to Earth   Faulty implementation of FRA said to be a reason for party winning just three of the 41 tribal seats in the country However, most of the tribal seats this time have been won by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and regional parties such as the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), YSR Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) (see list of seats below). It is strange that the...