Rural Development Minister C P Joshi today said only 65 lakh households had got 100 days employment under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme though 10 crore people had got job cards when the programme was launched.   "When NREGA was launched 10 crore people got job cards. Of these, 4.6 crore got work. But only 65 lakh households availed of 100 days work," Joshi said.   He was speaking at...

Monica Das Gupta is a senior social scientist at the World Bank. Her field research in Punjab, when she was at the National Council of Applied Economic Research, established that sex differentials in child mortality in rural Punjab persisted despite relative wealth, socio-economic development including rapid universalization of female education, fertility decline, and mortality decline. Amartya Sen’s writings drew attention to female foeticide and infanticide in Asia that led to...

A recent survey carried out by the TNUEF brings to light details of the discrimination Dalits in Madurai have faced for generations. OVER seven decades have rolled by since the freedom fighter A. Vaidhyanatha Iyer successfully led Dalits into the Meenakshi temple in Madurai, overcoming all the impediments posed by the casteist forces that were hell-bent on thwarting the historic event. But the stark reality is that “hidden apartheid” against...

Dr U Jaikumaran is breathless with excitement over the phone. “The next five days will be hectic and crucial in our war against hunger. We have to transplant rice on 300 acres in just five days.” Dr Jaikumaran, a professor at the Kerala Agriculture University (KAU), has been building a Food Security Army (FSA) – men and women in green uniforms organised into nine regiments and 24 battalions – who are...

The Centre has decided to go ahead with the controversial proposal of constructing Rajiv Gandhi Sewa Kendras at the panchayat level at a cost of Rs.10 lakh each from funds meant for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (Mgnregs). Notwithstanding the opposition against the use of funds meant to provide 100 days of manual employment to the unemployed in rural areas, the Ministry of Rural Development has decided to...