The implementation of a landmark forest rights Act, which in 2006 overturned several colonial-era laws in India that denied forest dwellers entitlements to land and other resources, has been “terrible”, an official panel has said.   The national committee, established in April last year by the tribal affairs and environment and forests ministries, visited 17 states in seven months and released its report on Monday. “Our site visits show the implementation has been...

Tamil Nadu has become the second largest state after Andhra Pradesh in the self-help group (SHG)-bank linkage programme launched by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard). In the state, 209,197 SHGs were credit linked with a financial assistance of Rs 2,791.65 crore in 2009-10, taking the cumulative number of SHGs credit linked to 852,791 (including repeat doses) with a bank loan of Rs 9,394.70 crore. Nabard said that a...

Safai karmacharis are set to end their two-decade-long movement for a life of dignity on a victorious note. DECEMBER 31, 2010. As revellers across the world prepare to celebrate the end of the first decade of the new millennium and the start of a new year, a million women across India will be celebrating not the end of a calendar year but the end of a centuries-old degrading and inhuman...

Some 10 lakh to 30 lakh migrant labourers take up skilled or semi-skilled work in Kerala. THE State Bank of India has a branch near the Raj Bhavan in Thiruvananthapuram, in a by-lane on the avenue leading to the Kowdiar Palace, the residence of the former maharajas of Travancore. It is a cosy little place on the first floor of a nondescript building, and the clientele includes the rich and...

As doctor and human rights activist Binayak Sen spends New Year's Day in prison as the only person to be convicted on sedition charges in 2010, it is worth noting that at least five others have also faced the charge over the course of the year. Most of these have been charged for their statements with regard to either the Naxal issue or the Kashmir conflict, according to media watchdog...