KEY TRENDS • According to National Sample Survey report no. 583: Persons with Disabilities in India, the percentage of persons with disability who received aid/help from Government was 21.8 percent, 1.8 percent received aid/help from organisation other than Government and another 76.4 percent did not receive aid/ help *8 • As per National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4), the Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) was 57.2 per 1,000 live births (for the non-STs it was 38.5)...
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Sordid tale of Odisha migrants-Suresh Krishnamoorthy
-The Hindu About two lakh from Odisha working in brick kilns live in sub-human conditions Ranga Reddy district: Birubak and his wife Varanasi, together with their five-year-old daughter Seema are paid just Rs. 600 to Rs. 800 a week. Hailing from Odisha, they have a 14-hour work-day that starts at 4 a.m. They just have time to eat the little food that Varanasi can prepare, wash utensils and grab just two to four...
More »Amidst the silica dust-Omar Rashid
-The Hindu The shortened lifespan of the quarry workers of Uttar Pradesh is spent breaking stones and residing among the pollution- laden boulders Mired with sandy roads and rocky terrain, the landscape in south-western Allahabad creates a remarkable mirage under the blue sky. Some of the larger rocks here have sizeable craters formed in them -- a sign of their depletion over time, by an activity that is hazardous yet critical to the...
More »When machine 'replaced' man as NREGA labourer-Vivek Deshpande
-The Indian Express Yavatmal: Works worth Rs 36 crore were completed in less than four months, supposedly a manual effort under the central employment scheme MNREGS, according to the Maharashtra's forest department. An inquiry ordered by the district collector has found it was made possible by a collusion between forest officials and contractors, who allegedly used machines. Works worth Rs 32 crore were done in only nine of 56 gram panchayats in...
More »Tankers and the economy of thirst-P Sainath
-The Hindu The water markets of Marathwada are booming. In the town of Jalna alone, tanker owners transact between Rs.6 million and Rs.7.5 million in water sales each day Thirst is Marathwada's greatest crop this season. Forget sugarcane. Thirst, human and industrial, eclipses anything else. Those harvesting it reap tens of millions of rupees each day across the region. The van loads of dried-out cane you see on the roads could end...
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