Social audit of rural jobs scheme promises to empower people Social audit of rural jobs scheme promises to empower people with information about how they are being denied the benefits of the schemes meant for them. Something comes between entitlements and beneficiaries when it comes to social sector schemes. It is not necessarily corruption or greed of the providers. It is the ignorance of the beneficiaries. If one were to drive through villages...

Rajasthan government is planning to set up 450 generic medicines stores across the state. Rajasthan medical and health minister Aimaduddin Ahmad 'Duru Miyan' said that the state government is serious on providing affordable quality health care in the state. The prescription of generic medicines by doctors would “pierce the cartel of big manufacturers†and reduce the drug prices. The state government will also get grant from ministry of chemicals and...

Despite a 25 percent deficit in rainfall, a village in Udaipur still manages to fill up its water tanks to the brim. WHEN HE first visited Dilwara, on the outskirts of Udaipur, Andre Ling, then a student from England, saw the village’s only pond, surrounded by filthy stumps of limestone and mud, disappear due to rank neglect over two summers. It was 2003 and Rajasthan had recorded a 45 percent...

Monsoon this year has failed most of India, causing drought in even well-irrigated and rainfed areas. Ravleen Kaur reports how our food preferences are making us vulnerable to drought Hari Achal Singh has been a farmer for as long as he can remember. And that’s as long as India has been independent. He recalls his childhood when his family depended on rain for irrigation. “We grew arhar (red gram), bajra...

Envisioning NREGA-II is important to realise the unfulfilled dreams of NREGA-I, which has failed thus far to break free of the shackles of a debilitating past.  The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) promises a revolutionary demand-driven, people-centred development programme. Planning, implementation and social audit by gram sabhas and gram panchayats can engender millions of sustainable livelihoods following initial rounds of wage employment. But NREGA-I has had to battle against...