As sex ratio worsens, Plan panel makes taboo proposal As the first line of defence against female foeticide, sex determination tests on pregnant women have been illegal in India for years. But in what could end up as a major policy shift, the Planning Commission is proposing relaxing the ban for rural areas as part of a programme of “adopting” female foetuses and generously incentivising families and health workers to ensure the...
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Reversing reforms? by Malini Bhattacharya
The beneficiaries of the land reforms in West Bengal get pushed out of their land under the new regime. MOGHAI MUNDA is dead. No one is there to mourn him but his distraught parents and his young wife who seems to have lost her power of speech. But it is a significant death, even if it is ignored by the ubiquitous media and, therefore, by the world at large. Like the...
More »In Chhattisgarh, bureaucratic enthusiasm leaves lakhs without rations by Aman Sethi
“There is never enough rice to go around for the whole family,” says tribal woman Leela With a handful of grain and a head full of recipes, Leela cooks rice in a pot balanced on three stones in a room with a few bricks knocked out to let in sunlight in this village barely 150 km from Raipur, Chhattisgarh capital. When rice is scarce, she adds more water to make a broth,...
More »For social justice by PS Krishnan
Any new system for the socio-economic progress of Dalits and other vulnerable sections must not lose sight of Special Component Plan goals. THE Planning Commission's “Approach to the 12th Five Year Plan” deals with the Scheduled Castes (S.C.s) briefly in a portion of Chapter 11 titled “Social and Regional Equity”. It, however, significantly mentions the need to devise a new system that can overcome the difficulties experienced with regard to the...
More »Two attempts to incite riots, the first one failed but the second did not by Deepu Sebastian Edmond
Four days after the riots that killed four in Rudrapur, the exodus hasn’t stopped. Over the six hours during which curfew was relaxed on Wednesday and Thursday, hundreds left the town. Just before the curfew was lifted on Thursday evening, the town celebrated Dussehra. The event was more ritualistic than celebratory. The three effigies were burnt down, and the Mahatma Gandhi ground emptied in a matter of minutes. There is no history...
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