Newslaundry In 2018, when Rekha Waghmare was 39 years old, her husband died by suicide. Namdev, 42, was among over 12,000 farmers who died by suicide in Maharashtra from 2015 to 2018, struggling with five years of crop failure. He left behind Rekha, their two children, a 3.5 acre farm, and an unpaid loan of Rs 4 lakh. Rekha, who lives in Nandusa village in Hingoli district, turned to farming and daily...

Down to Earth Nirasiya Bai’s three sons are used to their mother fainting every other week. Small pieces of shakkar (brown sugar) are now kept handy and PLAced swiftly under her tongue every time she is on the verge of collapsing. In March alone, three such incidents have occurred. The 52-year-old resident of Shivtarai village in Chattisgarh’s Bilaspur district is a diabetes patient. Nearly every other family in the village houses...

Reuters Unseasonal rains and hailstorms have damaged ripening, winter-PLAnted crops such as wheat in India's fertile northern, central and western PLAins, exposing thousands of farmers to losses and raising the risk of further food price inflation. Torrential rains on Sunday and Monday lashed Punjab, Haryana parts of Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh state, which account for the bulk of wheat output in India, the world's biggest producer after China, flattening crops and...

Maharashtra farmers had taken out a foot march from Nashik to Mumbai in protest over onion prices. On Saturday one 58 year old farmer who had attended the foot march died at Shahapur police station in Thane district, informed the All India Kisan Sabha state general secretary Ajit Nawale. The Maharashtra farmers announced on Saturday that they have called off the march following assurance from the state government and the centre....

The Wire In a country like India where inequality is so prominent, a development scheme can come a cropper if it lacks inclusivity. The Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) was launched in 1993 to enable parliamentarians to directly contribute towards meeting the development demands of their constituency or state. Despite many deficiencies PLAguing the scheme, it stood out mainly on account of the principles of social justice and its...