Recently launched National Rural Livelihood Mission might help the government in getting desired results from its social benefit schemes. Seen as the next big rural project after the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, NRLM will provide a platform for formation of village groups that will then assist in fine-tuning existing government schemes. The government's expectations from NRLM stems from the instances of success in some states that have been able to...

-The United Nations   Five United Nations agencies have banded together to call for urgently addressing gender-biased sex selection favouring boys, a common practice in many parts of South, East and Central ASIa that they say fuels a culture of discrimination and violence. “Sex selection in favour of boys is a symptom of pervASIve social, cultural, political and economic injustices against women, and a manifest violation of women’s human rights,” says a...

-The United Nations   Fast and relatively short-term action to curb soot and smog could improve human health, generate higher crop yields, reduce climate change and slow the melting of the Arctic, according to a United Nations-backed study released today. The study, compiled by an international team of more than 50 researchers and coordinated by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), “complements urgent action needed to cut...

The ends may justify the means, but let's be clear - in rural India, extremes of coercion are being used to encourage toilet use Robert Chambers recently wrote that community-led total sanitation is leading to a development revolution, especially in south ASIa. I agree with his assessment of sanitation's importance. In practice, however, the success of community-led efforts often hinges on the use of outright coercion. In my experience, the measures...

South ASIa may boast a number of women leaders and be home to cultures that revere motherhood and worship female deities, but many women live with the threat of appalling violence and without many bASIc rights. From forced marriages in Afghanistan and "honor killings" in Pakistan to foeticide in India and trafficking in Nepal, South ASIan women face a barrage of dangers, experts say, but add growing awareness, better laws and...