-The Hindu/ PTI Charge sheets were filed in 141 cases while just six people were convicted for the offence during the period. A total of 326 cases were registered in the country under the controversial colonial-era penal law on sedition between 2014 and 2019 in which just six persons were convicted. The Supreme Court last week observed that Section 124A of the IPC — offence of sedition — has been enormously misused and...
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The pandemic has hampered social auditing of MGNREGA
When a massive sum of public money is spent on a programme like Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA)--a demand-driven programme, there is likelihood of financial misappropriations and mismanagement. Thankfully there are checks and balances in the rural employment guarantee legislation to counter such malpractices. It is worth noting that the total allocation under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA) for 2020-21 was Rs. 1,11,500.00 crore (R.E.), up...
More »Mid-Day Meals play a crucial role in guaranteeing child nutrition in the post-pandemic world
School meals ensure nutrition for millions of vulnerable children across the world. Almost 370 million children worldwide are covered by school feeding programmes. While 100 million school children benefitted from the noon meal scheme in India prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries like Brazil (48 million), China (44 million), South Africa (9 million) and Nigeria (9 million) too run similar programmes for school children. However, an estimated 39 billion in-school...
More »Most stillbirths in 2019 happened in India, estimates UN report
Commenting on the recently released fifth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) data for 17 states and five Union Territories (UTs) in an article published in The Indian Express (dated 6th January, 2021), Arvind Subramanian and his co-authors have stated that India has made progress on certain outcomes, including infant mortality rate (IMR), under-five mortality rate (U5MR) and neonatal mortality rate (NNMR). Relying on various rounds of NFHS data,...
More »Why are nomads being evicted from Jammu and Kashmir? -Riyaz Wani
-Down to Earth Eviction drives come shortly after the J&K High Court declared the Roshni Act, allowed ownership of occupied government land against a fixed am Nomads of Jammu and Kashmir — mostly from the Gujjar and Bakkarwal communities living in temporary sheds or mud houses in forests and mountains — are being allegedly forcibly evicted by the government. Several videos of hutments being demolished surfaced in November 2020, triggering outrage from...
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