Coming months ‘crucial' The International Labour Organisation has warned that a jobs crisis caused by the slowdown in the global economy threatens a wave of widespread social unrest engulfing both rich and poor countries. Highlighting the darkening prospects for employment, the Geneva-based ILO said policymakers were running out of time to head off a double-dip recession in labour markets. “We have reached the moment of truth,” said Raymond Torres, director of the...

-The Economic Times   A giant statue in a Lucknow square made 12-year-old Rashi curious. Whose statue is this, she asked her father. Although a BSP worker, Jhanki Ram couldn't go beyond the name, Jyotiba Phule. But not wanting to show his ignorance, he added, "He was a Mahatma who did a lot for the dalit community". Both had come from Etawah to take part in Kanshiram Parinirvan functions this month. For...

No doubt ,India is making progress by leaps and bounds in every sector but the condition of the Dalits in India is deteriorating day by day in the society .Development of any nation has no meaning when a particular section of the society such as the downtrodden are socially & economically segregated from the mainstream . The situation is critical when we measure the overall development of the country in...

Absence of preventive measures and affordable and accessible health care leads to nearly 500 encephalitis deaths in Uttar Pradesh. IT is a strange paradox. In a country that aspires to be a superpower and boasts of rapid economic growth, 488 children died in a State, Uttar Pradesh, from encephalitis alone this year. It is nothing less than a national shame and tragedy. In six districts of Bihar, close to 200 children...

-EPW   The media noise shed little light on the important issues involved in deciding the coverage of welfare programmes. The context for the Planning Commission’s (PC) affidavit on the official poverty line was the deliberation in the Supreme Court on how many people could be covered by the public distribution system (PDS). But while the sound and fury over the poverty line – Rs 32 per capita per day in the urban...