A decade-old scheme to organize the rural poor into self-help groups and impart training to them has brought hundreds of thousands above the poverty line, says the rural development ministry, which executes the programme. Some 4.5 million people living below the poverty line have been trained under the Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana, or SGSY, while 3.5 million self-help groups (SHGs) have been created since its launch in 1999. An evaluation of SGSY...

While you were glued to your flat screen, with your eyeballs popping out every time the ball was hit for a six, in a dark corner of India - in a Haryana village very close to the national capital - a dog was barking. Since it was a Dalit dog (in India, even dogs have caste), the upper caste Jaats were getting all riled up. So they decided to teach...

Indigenous Peoples worldwide continue to be among the poorest of the poor and continue to suffer from higher poverty, lower education, and a greater incidence of disease and discrimination than other groups, according to a new World Bank study: Indigenous Peoples, Poverty, and Development. Released today at the Ninth Session of the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, the study offers a "global snapshot” of a set of indicators for...

India grapples with endemic backwardness in over 200 districts while some sectors and sections make global headlines. The Centre on Market Solutions to Poverty's report, Creating Vibrant Public-Private-Panchayat Partnerships for Inclusive Growth through Inclusive Governance explores this paradox by looking at the ground-level realities in local governance through the Panchayati Raj, the issues of agricultural productivity and value addition, and the role that the business sector could play in rural...

The Central Vigilance Committee on Public Distribution System (PDS) headed by Justice (rtd) DP Wadhwa has come down heavily on the Public Districution Syetem in its recently submitted report. The committee has ruled that the whole system of procurement and distribution of food grains is built on corruption and its benefits to the poor are low. His prescription: Innovative methods to improve the system. "The whole system has to be...