-The Times of India CHENNAI: In a rare initiative, the Tamil Nadu government has taken up waste management and conservancy in villages using the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme to employ conservancy workers. The scheme is being implemented in 9,000 of 12,000 panchayats and more than 60,000 `Thuimai Kavalars` (sanitation workers) have been appointed so far. All workers are paid Rs.183 as daily wages. The Union rural development department...

-Hindustan Times The whole society is culpable in Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s death but the focus should also be on why the media can be held responsible for this heart-wrenching case of suicide. Vemula wished to reach the stars and dreamt of becoming a Carl Sagan but became yet another victim of institutionalised discrimination based on caste. His death has turned into a livewire, sparking unseen levels of protest across India from...

-The Hindu However, it is among the highest consumers of smokeless forms of tobacco The preliminary findings from National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) released last week have given anti-tobacco campaigners a reason to smile. The survey has found that across the board, people — both men and women — in India are smoking less than they were a decade ago. Not just tobacco, even alcohol consumption among Indians has fallen. According to the...

-Scroll.in By one estimate 1.4 crore households have been re-designated as Above Poverty Line during the Rajasthan government’s drive to trim the list of PDS beneficiaries. As the afternoon sun bore down, Naujibai Bhil waited for her turn outside the public grievance office in Rajasthan’s Rajsamand district. “The sarpanch cancelled my red ration card and replaced it with a blue one,” said the adivasi woman from Daang Ke Vaas village, holding her head...

-DNA Widespread damage and loss of the Kharif crop in 2015 due to drought served to highlight the insecurity of the Indian farmers in the face of various challenges beyond their control: drought, hailstorms, unseasonal rains, cyclones, wild animals, epidemics and seed or technological failures, among others. Farm rights movements across the country have rubbished the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna (PMFBY) calling it “a dressed up version of existing crop insurance...