For long, villagers have been at the wrong ends of justice being unaware of the functioning of courts and also sent on a merry-go-round while trying to procure a document -- be it a ration card, birth or castecertificate -- from panchayat or block offices. No more, for the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) is forging ahead with its plan to set up legal aid clinics (LACs) of permanent nature...

As many as 12 districts in North-Eastern Bihar have been identified as major “hotspots” in food security in the state, according to the Food Security Atlas on Rural Bihar . The report, prepared by the Institute for Human Development (IHD) in conjunction with the United Nation's World Food Programme (UNWFP), provides a comprehensive food security information system for the state while pin-pointing the most vulnerable districts that are in dire...

Biodiversity drives sustainable and climate-resilient farming and the biotechnology industry. Everything should be done to spread bio-literacy for an era of bio-happiness in rural and urban India through the conversion of bio-resources into jobs and income.  Biodiversity provides building blocks for sustainable food, health and livelihood security systems. It is the feedstock for the biotechnology industry and a climate-resilient farming system. Given its importance, a Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)...

Sixty per cent of hospitals in rural Maharashtra don’t have an obstetrician or gynaecologist, 85 per cent are not equipped to conduct caesarean sections and about 90 per cent don’t have blood storage facilities. These are just some of the several shocking findings of the third District Level Household Survey (DLHS), a health survey commissioned by the Union Health Ministry and conducted by the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai....

For two decades the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) has taken the Right to Information Act to the grassroots. KAVERI GILL was witness to a mela that celebrated its 20th anniversary at Bhim, Rajasthan.  The occasion was no political party rally, nor was there any promise of handouts by the state, dangling a carrot or wielding a stick to elicit attendance On Labour Day, a maidan in Bhim, District Rajsamand,...