The total number of farm suicides in the country has reduced from 12,602 to 11,370 between 2015 and 2016 viz. a fall by 9.8 percent. This has been revealed recently in a reply by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Shri Parshottam Rupala in the Lok Sabha. So, one may wonder why there is such a hue and cry about rural distress and agrarian crisis...
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Why the Budget may not benefit the female kisan -Jayashree Nandi
-The Times of India Laduben, 70, of Kuda village in Gujarat's Bhavnagar has waited for more than 20 years to be recognised as a 'farmer' in government records and become the rightful owner of the land she cultivated for years. Laduben's husband passed away when her three daughters were little and she was carrying her fourth child. Her in-laws got her name removed from the family varsai (inheritance document). Her brother-in-law insisted...
More »Of crime and punishment -Mukul Sanwal
-The Hindu Low conviction rates and a lack of a lawful definition of crime mark criminal administration in India Police reform in India has been concerned with political interference ever since the landmark Supreme Court judgement, in 2006, on the subject. The focus should really be on reorganising criminal administration. The annual publication of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), “Crime in India 2016”, which was released recently, presents a dismal picture of...
More »Deceased farmers' kin march to Delhi to find their voice -Nikita Doval and Sayantan Bera
-Livemint.com Hundreds of farmers came to Delhi to tell their stories, but their problems are similar: crop failures, rising debt, losses from farming due to low crop prices leading to suicides New Delhi: A copy of the Telugu daily Sakshi, dating back to 2015, is M. Lakshmi Devi’s constant companion. The newspaper, a part of which is stained by tea, contains a report about the suicide of a debt-burdened farmer—her husband. “We had...
More »It's lonely on the ground -Christophe Jaffrelot & Basim U Nissa
-The Indian Express RTI Act needs to be protected against attempts to dilute it. RTI activists must be made less vulnerable In April, the government of India proposed amendments to the RTI Act, one of the most empowering pieces of legislation inherited from the UPA era. The most controversial amendment pertained to Rule 12. It would allow the withdrawal of an application in case of the applicant’s death, making the job of...
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