-The Hindu India has a lasting infrastructure of public support that can, in principle, be expanded in drought years to provide relief. But business as usual seems to be the motto Droughts in India used to be times of frantic relief activity. Large-scale public works were organised, often employing more than 1,00,000 workers in a single district. Food distribution was arranged for destitute persons who were unable to work. Arrangements were also...
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An oasis in drought-hit Maharashtra, village sets example -Radheshyam Jadhav
-The Times of India HIWARE BAZAR (Ahmednagar): Amid desperate denizens scrounging for water in the drought-affected parts of Maharashtra stands a village which has not felt the need to call a single water tanker for the last 21 years! While other villages in the arid Ahmednagar district are digging borewells even up to 400 feet, the underground water table in Hiware Bazar is so good that the precious commodity is available barely...
More »How To Measure Poverty -Yoginder K Alagh
-The Indian Express A neat separation of poverty estimates and entitlements won’t pass muster. There was much hope about the work that Arvind Panagariya was mandated to do on the measurement of poverty. I, for one, have held from the 1980s that the official Poverty Line that emerged from a taskforce I chaired in 1976-77 should be shelved. Panagariya has reportedly suggested that the Tendulkar Committee’s report should be accepted for...
More »Where a long line of farmers did not wait for elections -Soumya Das
-The Hindu Many debt-ridden farmers in Bardhaman district have committed suicide. Bardhaman (West Bengal): “What is the use of voting? Elections will come and go but our lives will continue to be miserable,” said Parbati Let of Jamalpur in Bardhaman district of West Bengal. About a year ago, her husband, Atul Let (43), a potato farmer, committed suicide by consuming pesticide as he was unable to repay a loan of Rs. 50,000...
More »Nearly half of Indians survived on less than Rs.38 a day in 2011-12 -Tadit Kundu
-Livemint.com The Global Consumption and Income Project suggests that official statistics might be understating the extent of poverty How much of India is poor? And by how much has that number reduced over the years? This is an old debate and the answers to these questions vary greatly depending on the choice of the survey method and the Poverty Line. According to official statistics , India’s poverty rate declined from 45% in...
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