Central scheme boosts crop yields significantly, but suffers as NREGA’s success eats into the available workforce S. Mallika, 27, is expecting a windfall this year. The farmer from Kurumpatti village in Tamil Nadu’s Krishnagiri district owns a 5 acre tract, which has been yielding an annual income of Rs50,000 for her family—until now. This year, Mallika is confident her earning would be six times more—Rs3 lakh—and that too from just 1,000 sq....

In Danta village, 15km from Bhilwara city, 30-odd women start filing in at 8.30 am daily to resume work on building a concrete water reservoir. The women are among the 2,000 people in the village who have got work under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) since the scheme, promising 100 days of work a year to one adult member of every rural family, was launched two years ago...

Union minister of state for rural development Agatha Sangma on Tuesday said the Centre would shortly bring women reservation Bill in the parliament. A consensus is being emerged for the early passage of the women reservation Bill and shortly it would be brought in the parliament, Sangma told reporters here after attending a meeting of women from rural areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. The meeting ‘Himalayan Women: Political,...

On January 2, 2010, three masked men barged into Pinki’s home in Tapodana village, Ranchi district and killed her parents on the charges of practicing witchcraft. Pinki, 14, and her younger brother are now in hiding because she too has been named as a dayan or witch. Sushila Devi, 45, tries to hide the injury on her head with her sari pallu as she describes how she and four other...

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...