Disability rights groups are up in arms against the divergent stands being taken by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on the rights of persons with disabilities. As per the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), ratified by India, all human beings are presumed to have legal capacities. However, while the new Persons with Disabilities Act, 2011...
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The UID Project and Welfare Schemes by Reetika Khera
This article documents and then examines the various benefits that, it is claimed, will flow from linking the Unique Identity number with the public distribution system and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. It filters the unfounded claims, which arise from a poor understanding of how the PDS and NREGS function, from the genuine ones. On the latter, there are several demanding conditions that need to be met in order...
More »Govt unveils health plan for elderly by Kounteya Sinha
India has finally woken up to the needs of the country's elderly. With the number of people in the 60-plus age group in India expected to increase to 100 million in 2013 and to 198 million in 2030, the health ministry is all set to roll out the National Programme for the Health Care of the Elderly (NPHCE). A ministry note, available with TOI, estimates that the elderly population will increase to 12% of...
More »Miracle workers by Anupama Katakam
A courier company in Mumbai shows the way in providing employment for the hearing impaired. IN the milling crowds of Mumbai, they stand apart with their orange T-shirts printed with the name Mirakle Couriers. Every day, during the busy hours of the working week, one sees them on the sidewalks, in public transport and elsewhere with large black bags slung on their shoulders. It would not be enough to say...
More »Kerala’s pesticide puzzle by Shaju Philip
Twice every year, between 1981 and 2000, a helicopter would whirr around the hills of the Western Ghats in Kasargod, a district in north Kerala bordering Karnataka, spraying endosulfan over the cashew plantations on the upper reaches. Children would rush out to take a look at the helicopter and the white spray would settle like mist on their heads and on leaves and shimmer in the sunlight. But that’s also...
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