Women speak out fears of resisting deep-seated taboos associated with menstruation, viewed even today as polluting in much of India The status of women in India, despite all the brave talk, remains as precarious as ever. This is, after all, a culture which not just condones, but actively encourages the termination of foetuses determined to be female. Other crimes of violence against women are routine. Can things ever change? We took...

The impending BPL Census exercise will not help the poor; on the contrary, it will further deny them a fair share in national resources. The BPL, or Below Poverty Line, Census 2011 for the rural areas will start in select States this month. In a country such as India with vast numbers of the poor, counting the poor often becomes an exercise in undercounting and dividing them, to suit the wholly...

With the monsoon expected in a week’s time, CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan is rushing to New Delhi to meet the Prime Minister on Thursday to find ways to dispose of lakhs of tonnes of wheat lying in the open. Riding on a populist bonus of Rs 100 per quintal, madhya pradesh has procured a record 48.50 lakh MT of wheat but has no space to store more than 25 per cent...

In its wisdom, the state giveth and the state taketh away. When it acquires farmlands claiming eminent domain, there is blood on the streets. However, when it quietly bestows largesse on chosen ones, it is barely noticed. At worst there is a lawsuit. There were a dozen lengthy judgments from the Supreme Court in the past two months on land acquisition disputes — a mark of the times. But the biased...

-DNA   Following reports of a three-year-old receiving remuneration in Kutch under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the central government will probe into corruption in implementation of the Act in Gujarat. This was informed by Union minister for rural development and panchayati raj, Vilasrao Deshmukh on Sunday. Deshmukh also threatened to cut short Union government's fund if the state government fails to take appropriate action to stem the...