-Down to Earth Where titles have been granted, average size of land holdings much smaller than what the Forest Rights Act provides for, says status report on implementation of the Act The latest status report of the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs on the implementation status of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 confirms the general perception that the law has not really benefitted tribal people and other forest dwellers...
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A lesson in rural schooling for state-Antara Bose
Jamshedpur, June 10: For a people who have clung to next-door Bengal for healthcare for years, setting up a self-run school — English medium, no less — may well be just another way out of elusive state welfare measures. The 700-odd population of 19 villages that make up Gopalpur panchayat, 80km from Jamshedpur in East Singhbhum’s rebel-hit Baharagora block, have made up its mind to do just that. The primary schools, at...
More »The Man Who Wore a Sanitary Napkin-Elizabeth Kuruvilla
-Open the Magazine Villagers saw him cleaning his undergarments stained with goat blood and thought he had a sexual disease. But Arunachalam Muruganantham was only trying to make a smart, cheap sanitary pad for his wife I am perhaps the only man to have ever worn a sanitary napkin. I am the only man who understands what a woman endures during those days. The wetness. The discomfort. The constant fear of stains....
More »They got a plot but sleep on the road, cook in the open-Santosh Singh
Araria, Bihar: Exactly a year ago, just before the rains, Kumiya Devi got her three-decimal (1,306.8-square foot) plot at Kajra in Araria district under the Mahadalit Vikas Yojana, the Nitish Kumar government’s showpiece scheme to distribute land to landless Dalits. Before she could build her home, a seasonal stream flooded the plot and her 10-year-old son Aklu drowned in it while going to school. Reason: there was no approach road to...
More »Forest of problems
-The Business Standard MSP for forest produce may not work The government’s proposal to set up a minimum support price (MSP) commission to fix assured prices for minor forest produce has pros as well as cons, which need to be weighed carefully before a final call is taken. The proposal envisages the forest MSP panel as having its own elaborate establishment, allowing it to set minimum prices for non-timber forest produce while...
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