-Sunday Pioneer A cluster of villages engaged in weaving the exquisite Benarasi sarees is in the midst of a serious health crisis. More than 1 lakh people from this once prosperous region have fallen prey to aggressive tuberculosis. Poor living conditions, working in dark rooms and constant inhalation of minute silk threads have weakened the lungs of these artisans. With an average monthly income of not more than Rs3,000, it is...

-TheWeekendLeader.com Despite a drought-like situation across Rajasthan this year, farmers of a small village on the edge of the Thar Desert reaped good harvest from their fruit orchards. They are growing vegetables this winter. Just five years ago, residents of Khidrat struggled to arrange drinking water, let alone water for irrigation. Due to scanty rainfall (see table), groundwater was not only dipping, it had turned brackish. Even deep borewells would yield saline...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: An effort has begun to enrol India's street children in the Aadhaar programme, which will allow them in principle to obtain school admission, open bank accounts and secure government welfare. Some child rights activists, however, fear it will be a "cosmetic endeavour" in the absence of a government rehab programme, since few of these children have money to keep in banks or the resources to study. National Commission for...

-The Hindu Concerned over the glaring increase in the number of beggars across all major cities and towns in the country, the Centre is now focussing on preventing begging. To begin with, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has asked the States and Union Territories to inform the Centre about schemes and welfare measures taken by them to check beggary. No information on implementation "Although various State governments and Union Territories have enacted...

-The New Indian Express THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: While taking up farming, her family's means of support, Ramani Vengattu, a 47-year-old woman belonging to Kizhakkumbad, Kozhikode never thought that she could script success within a short period of time. At present, the lean but dynamic homemaker is a regular provider of green spinach to the Palayam vegetable market, Kozhikode. For good quality spinach leaves, the first name that comes to the mind of the natives...