-FirstPost.com New Delhi: India is in the grip of a drought for the second year running. On an average, 9 farmers committed suicide daily in Maharashtra alone last year. A fight against drought of course needs adequate supply of drinking water and foodgrain but it also requires the government to augment existing Central initiatives and launch new schemes for affected states. Is the government doing enough to help drought affected regions? Last week,...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Three reasons why the Centre has failed to provide relief to drought-hit states through MNREGA -Anumeha Yadav
-Scroll.in Despite the Modi government's claims, the scheme is short of funds, and states are unable to offer guaranteed employment to rural workers. Why aren’t the poor in drought-affected states getting state assistance when they most need it? The Supreme Court has strongly reprimanded the Modi government for not releasing adequate funds on time under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, or MNREGA, for rural workers especially in drought-hit states. Under the...
More »Planting a Seed of Hope -Usha Rai
-The Indian Express A new initiative attempts to economically empower villagers living near Kanha National Park, and protect its green cover and wildlife. The Kanha–Pench forest corridor is rich in biodiversity and home to a large concentration of tigers, leopards, gaurs, barasingha, and cheetal. But with the population of the villages increasing and land holdings shrinking, conservation efforts were paramount. If the needs of the villagers for improved livelihoods are not...
More »No Drought of Ideas to Slake India's Thirst -Yatish Yadav
-The New Indian Express NEW DELHI: The unprecedented drought in 9 states — at the beginning of April itself — poses the biggest challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi who recently launched several farmer-centric initiatives to ensure drought-proof agriculture in a bid to provide fresh impetus to the economy. As per a note submitted to the Prime Minister by a panel of secretaries, only 45 per cent area is irrigated in the...
More »Why are India's housewives killing themselves? -Soutik Biswas
-BBC More than 20,000 housewives took their lives in India in 2014. This was the year when 5,650 farmers killed themselves in the country. So the number of suicides by housewives was over 250% more than the farmers. They also comprised 47% of the total female victims. Yet the high number of homemakers killing themselves doesn't make front page news in the way farmer suicides do, year after year. In fact, more than 20,000 housewives...
More »