-The Telegraph Many families depend on two entitlements for survival: social security pensions and rations from the public distribution system Particularly vulnerable tribal groups, earlier known as primitive tribal groups, are the sort of people you may never meet unless you take the trouble to look for them. In Jharkhand, they live in small hamlets scattered over the nooks and crannies of the state’s undulating forests. Without a purpose and some local...

-Scroll.in The ASHA unions in Bihar are demanding government employee status and a minimum wage. Accredited Social Health Activists or ASHA workers in Bihar went on an indefinite strike from December 1 with a 12-point charter of demands. Bihar has 93,687 ASHA workers – the second highest contingent of the one million ASHA workers in India. They are the key link between the healthcare system and rural populations and have to perform...

-VillageSquare.in Women trained as poshan sakhis, or nutrition friends, advice and help rural women, particularly expectant and lactating mothers, to eat nutritious food and overcome anemia and underweight deliveries Koraput (Odisha): Swapnarani (21), an expectant mother, finishes her household work fast to attend the monthly maitri baithak at her village Bhutanagar in Badakeranga panchayat of Odisha’s Koraput district. Maitri baithak, or friendship meeting, provides space for women to discuss issues that concern...

-NDTV Lenders have loosened purse strings, but some sectors are monopolising bank loans. Hence the clamour for more credit Credit flow to industry, or the lack of it, has been a bone of contention between the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). While RBI and its supporters assert that bank lending is now growing at a brisk pace, the government and industry lobbies insist that the credit taps remain shut....

-IANS New Delhi: The Centre for Equity Studies on Tuesday released its annual report on exclusion of several sections of the society from mainstream and denial of public goods to them on the basis of their class or caste or ethnicity, otherwise ensured to every citizen by the Constitution. "These reports assemble evidence about the success of governments in India to ensure equitable access to what we call public goods to all...