-Down to Earth Almost 40 per cent of India's population is minor but the budget allocated to them is a meagre four per cent of the Union budget It was a mid-winter morning when we first met her at the anganwadi centre of Mai, a small village by the bank of the River Ganga in Bihar’s Munger district. The breakfast session at the anganwadi centre was just over, though some of the...

-The Hindu Business Line Ahmedabad: Gender-based discrimination leads to greater neglect of girls, in turn leading to malnourishment and retardation in female children, explained experts at the Jaipur-based IIHMR University recently. Experts and academicians from the university revealed that as much as 56 per cent of girls aged between 15 and 19 suffer from anaemia. Commenting on the National Girl Child Day, Goutam Sadhu, Associate Professor and in-charge, School of Rural Management at...

-The Hindu In households with a limited food budget, or where there is no refrigerator to store leftover food, the person who eats last very often gets less or lower quality food India has a major child malnutrition problem. The Rapid Survey on Children (2012-13) found that about 4 in 10 children are stunted. On average, children who are stunted do less well in school, earn less, and die sooner than children...

-The Times of India There is a trace of pride in Nisha Chaurasiya's voice as she complains of how she and her co-workers in an anganwadi in Rajnandgaon district of Chhattisgarh struggled to provide food to babies and children, and to expectant women, since demonetisation took effect on November 8. "The self-help groups borrowed money from everybody, stood in bank queues, pleaded with officials and even spent from their own meagre savings...

-TheWire.in Jayalalithaa’s schemes – such as her canteens and baby care kits – may appear to be populist at first glance, but are actually quite entrenched in a welfare tradition. For development economists, Tamil Nadu offers many lessons in social democracy. The state has distinguished itself with visionary schemes – such as noon meals (known as the mid-day meal scheme nationally) and the Dr Muthulakshmi Reddy Maternity Benefits Scheme, which provides Rs...