The International Labour Organisation has done well to include a draft convention on decent work for domestic workers in the agenda for the 100th session of the International Labour Conference, scheduled for June. For centuries the domestic workers have lived along the margins of the international workforce. Well-documented reports by the ILO and other organisations point to the universality of their woes. Entirely informal in nature, domestic work, at its...

A recent survey by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has revealed that 18% of the water supplied by Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is unfit for drinking. Every fifth person in the city is consuming contaminated water, the report indicates. The civic agency tested 616 samples from different parts of the city, of which 111 were found unfit for drinking. The worst affected areas were the south and Karol Bagh zones. In...

The Right to Food Campaign on Monday announced its decision to launch a country-wide protest against the National Advisory Council's framework for the proposed National Food Security Bill, which, they said, fell short of people's expectation of a comprehensive food security bill that addressed nutrition and livelihood issues. “Even the budget proposals show no commitment to food security of people,” Campaign Convener Kavita Srivastava told journalists here. Failed to seize opportunity “By proposing...

Following the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Orissa government has banned the practice of “bartan” system under which upper caste families extract work from barbers and washermen during important family occasions in return for just 15 kg of paddy for the whole year. Thanks to the efforts of petitioner Baghambar Patnaik, since 2006, the age-old practice has ended with the Panchayat Raj Department issuing the notification...

A couple of years ago, Mahabubnagar district in India’s southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh had one of its driest years since 1929. The region recorded 90 percent less rainfall than the norm. But the mass exodus expected when droughts cause crops to fail didn’t happen. Men didn’t leave to work in cities. They stayed put. This was partly down to a network of 8,000 highly motivated women. The Adarsha Mahila...