CITIES MAKE one simple promise to newcomers: Sacrifice yourself to me and your children shall prosper. This promise drew Ahmed Raza, a small-time wrestler from an Uttar Pradesh village and millions like him to the capital of newly-independent India. Raza kept his part of the bargain, yet half a century later, his daughter was pushed out of the city her father helped build, the only home she has known. “I...
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300 crorepati babus in Bihar! by Faizan Ahmad
PATNA: A staggering 300 Bihar government employees earning modest government salaries are crorepatis. If this isn’t surprising enough, here’s more: All but two of the sleazy 300 continue to hold on to their secure as also, no doubt, lucrative - government jobs despite long stints in jails. According to official figures, 71 such corrupt babus were caught until November this year by the state vigilance bureau. In 2006, when chief...
More »Cost of right to education: Rs 1.78 lakh crore
After the euphoria comes the real test. The cost of implementing the historic Right to Education Act over the next five years by Centre and states works out to a whopping Rs 1.78 lakh crore. The new law will come into force from the next academic year and since right to education is now a fundamental right, it is mandatory on the part of the government to provide what is demanded....
More »Malnutrition
KEY TRENDS • According to The State of the World's Children 2019 report, the proportion of children under 5 years who are either stunted, wasted or overweight was 54 percent for India in 2015, 49 percent for Afganistan, 46 percent for Bangladesh in 2014, 43 percent for Nepal in 2016, 43 percent for Pakistan in 2018, 40 percent for Bhutan in 2010, 32 percent for Maldives in 2009, 28 percent for Sri Lanka and 50...
More »Debt Trap
KEY TRENDS • The NSS 59th Round (January-December 2003) had found that 48.6% farmer households were indebted while the NSS 70th Round (January-December 2013) has observed that 52% of India's agricultural households were indebted in July, 2012-June, 2013 $ • A similar survey on rural indebtedness by the NSSO in 1991 found indebtedness among only 26% of farmers $ • On an average, the amount of debt per farmer household was Rs. 12,585 during NSS...
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