-Tehelka Lack of toilets is forcing girls to drop out of schools in Chhattisgarh Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech impressed many, but for some, his statement that most schools in India do not have toilets served as a painful reminder of harsh realities. "I felt as if the prime minister was talking about me," says Sunita*, 13, who lives in Dhamtari district of Chhattisgarh. "No one understands what girls here...
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This transaction is still incomplete -Erica Field, Charity Troyer Moore, Rohini Pande, Natalia, Rigol and Simone Schaner
-The Indian Express Earlier this month, the ministry of finance announced that over 50 million new bank accounts have been opened and 17 million debit cards issued since the launch of a bold new plan to grant financial access to the poor. Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced this initiative, called the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY), in a speech in August. Its ultimate goal is to reach 150 million unbanked...
More »Need to clean our biases first, then our streets -Harsh Mander
-The Hindustan Times The country is ostensibly in the throes of a great social movement for sanitation. Gandhi's name is evoked, Prime Minister Narendra Modi leads from the front, ministers lift brooms for cameras, and officers, college and school children take oaths against littering and to clean their surroundings. Earlier the PM pledges in his Independence Day speech toilets for girls and boys in all schools. It appears that the squalor of...
More »A workforce on the move, literally -S Chandrasekhar
-The Hindu Business Line The number of people commuting between rural and urban areas and across geographies has risen dramatically In the last couple of decades, the number of people commuting between rural and urban areas on a daily basis has seen an explosive growth. This includes unskilled workers without a fixed place of work. According to the National Sample Survey Organisation, between 1993-94 and 2009-10, India saw a nearly fourfold increase (from...
More »India needs hygiene education as well as new toilets -Nitya Jacob
-The Guardian Narendra Modi may be feeling flush enough to spend millions on putting a loo in every home, but people also need to understand why they should use them From being the humble recipient of human waste, the toilet has reached the exalted status of being the subject of speeches by India's Narendra Modi. The prime minister promised to put a toilet in every home by 2019 in his independence...
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