-The Hindu The production of waste in India is growing at an exponential rate. However, the welfare and dignity of the informal workers involved in the stigmatised sector of waste management remains at the bottom of any government’s political agenda. Human society has always produced waste and always will. Waste materials — substances without value — are constantly generated in all production, all distribution and all consumption processes. The time waste spends...

-The Indian Express The MGNREGA promises 100 days of employment every year to each rural household. The Act mandates that at least a third of the workers under the scheme should be women. The flagship rural job guarantee scheme may have succeeded in ensuring that a significant proportion of its workforce comprises of women, but it has failed to bridge the gender gap and include women in a holistic way, a...

-The Indian Express Various Dalit rights groups have gathered in New York over the weekend to demand that the lapse be addressed by at least ensuring that the caste is recognised in the list of “indicators”, which will be used to monitor the implementation of the SDGs. New York: While inclusive development is one of the principles written into the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the member nations at the...

-The Hindu Business Line A narrow focus on growth-led development is the cause of the world’s sustainability crisis, not its solution The world’s political leaders meet in New York today to adopt a ‘sustainable development’ agenda. On the face of it, this sounds very hopeful. It signals that finally, humanity may move towards making peace with the earth, even as it erases the shame of over two billion people still living in...

-The Times of India RAIPUR: Amid a union minister recently stoking a row saying that girls wanting a night out is not acceptable in India, BJP ruled Chhattisgarh has went a step further with its class X social science textbook quoting that "working women are one of the causes of unemployment" in the country". A young teacher in tribal Jashpur district in Chhattisgarh has confronted government, questioning the content being served to...