The government's ambitious Socio-economic and Caste Census 2011, the bedrock for many social schemes, is facing a human resource crisis that is likely to delay not only the survey, but also many big-ticket electoral promises of the UPA government, such as the National Food Security Bill. To salvage the situation, the rural development ministry, which is executing the census through state governments, recently approached the Registrar General of India (RGI) for...

- Women's Feature Service   These are busy days for Aruna Roy, founder member of the National Campaign for the People’s Right to Information (NCPRI) and the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), with the Jan Lok Pal and the need to check corruption emerging as big concerns in India. The woman, who traded a promising career in the bureaucracy for an activist’s existence in 1975, is presently intensely involved in the issue. Pamela...

The National Population Register and the Unique Identification Authority of India, which assigns Aadhar numbers, are at loggerheads with each unwilling to use the other’s data. The NPR has cited security concerns about the UAIDAI data since it has been using multiple registrars. The UAIDAI, in turn, has said the NPR needs first to complete a process of public scrutiny, which the latter says will take time. As a result, two camps...

The finance ministry is putting shape to a new social security scheme for unorganized sector workers, creating for the first time a safety net for millions of underpaid and overworked people, many of whom living in abject poverty.  The ministry has discussed with the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and the four state run non-life insurance companies the contours of this scheme that will provide life insurance, health cover and retirement pension...

The promotion of the PDS as an Aadhaar application would fundamentally alter its form and character. NO scheme of the Indian government would be transformed more fundamentally by Aadhaar than the public distribution system (PDS). The nature of this transformation appears to be taking the form of a virtual dismantling of the PDS; even if a skeletal fair price shop (FPS, or ration shop) system continues to exist, it is likely...