Fishermen have abandoned lakes in the area after seawater raised alkaline levels in the wake of Alia Kultali, West Bengal: For the past 30 years, Atal Naskar has been making enough money from his three-acre fishing lake to feed a family of 10. But three months ago, this 50-year old fisherman fled his home in Kultali in West Bengal’s Sunderbans delta, hounded by moneylenders because he couldn’t repay a loan...

The Centre, for the first time, has undertaken a nation-wide survey of slums to profile urban household poverty and the nature of jobs held by those living on society's fringes. The survey will profile slum-dwellers by caste and religion "for properly allocating development schemes, policy-making, project formulation and implementation, and monitoring", according to an official at the Union ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation (Hupa). The survey, being conducted under Hupa,...

The stalled Land Acquisition Bill should be completely overhauled. In both China and India the issue of land acquisition has become politically very sensitive. In China by official reports more than 66 million farmers have been dislocated in recent years for various commercial development projects. Local officials in cahoots with local business have been rather cavalier in this matter, and this has inflamed passions in the countryside. In India the...

Is the government trying to shirk its responsibility of providing a social security net even as it contemplates a right to food act? In a move that could undercut the very logic of UPA’s much-touted right to food Act, the Planning Commission has recommended that the government do away with the public distribution system (PDS) and begin cash-for-food schemes instead. Running counter to the logic of the much successful mid-day meal...

KEY TRENDS   • Suicide by self-employed persons in agriculture as a percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in...