-Hindustan Times A nutrition plan within the National Food Security Act meant for pregnant women and lactating mothers, a vulnerable group that skews India’s hunger indices, looks quietly buried. It still runs as a trial in 52 districts, two years after the landmark legislation was signed into law. The Centre hasn’t yet begun Budgeting for it to expand the maternal health scheme to cover the whole country. While a parallel scheme under...
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Modi government now keen on tougher SC/ST Atrocities Act -Jayant Sriram
-The Hindu After sitting on a key Bill to strengthen the law against atrocities on people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, the Modi government now appears keen on pushing it through during the Monsoon Session of Parliament, possibly with an eye on the forthcoming Bihar Assembly elections. The United Progressive Alliance government had promulgated the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Ordinance on March 4,...
More »Socio Economic Caste Census: Has It Ignored Too Many Poor Households? -NC Saxena
-Economic and Political Weekly A survey to identify who the poor are and how many are actually poor is necessary if programmes and benefits targeted at the needy are to reach them. The Socio Economic Caste Census, of which partial results have been published, was intended to do this. Yet, even a cursory look at the figures indicates that they call for a willing suspension of disbelief. N C Saxena (naresh.saxena@gmail.com) was...
More »Funding crisis puts India's AIDS programme, and lives, at risk
-Reuters NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: India's fight against AIDS is being jeopardized by a cut in social spending by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government, with health workers being laid off and programmes to prevent the spread of the deadly disease curtailed. With about 2.1 million people infected with HIV in 2013, India has the most cases in the Asia-Pacific, according to the World Health Organization, but new infections have fallen more than 20 percent...
More »Project without a plan -Jitendra
-Down to Earth After two Budgets and Rs 5,300 crore in funding, the Centre's micro irrigation project that promises water to every farmland is not even close to a roll-out The news of deficit monsoons this year has once again left the Centre worried. A concerned prime minister chaired a high-level meeting on June 8 where he emphasised the need to quickly augment the irrigation capacity of the country. But he conveniently...
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