Poor, pregnant with third child? Even the state’s giving up on you. Why Less For More     * The ministry of health and family welfare wants to target poor, pregnant women with more than two children, take away entitlements and benefits     * Critics say the two-child norm will severely restrict the number of beneficiaries of the Janani Suraksha Yojana scheme. The scheme, launched in 2005, has been a great success.     *...

The Supreme Court on Friday appeared doubtful about pressing the government to give cash “incentives” under a centrally sponsored scheme to poor women pregnant from child marriages, saying this may be seen as “encouraging” the social crime. “If Government of India gives incentives, will it not mean that it is encouraging child marriages.... We cannot give approval to child marriages,” a Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma observed. The...

Conditional cash transfers are necessary but not sufficient for improving health. Good government-funded health care is essential, as are schemes which address social determinants of health. The march of capitalism, with its reduced emphasis on public spending, while improving many national economies has also widened the gap between the rich and the poor. For millions of Indians, hunger is routine, malnutrition rife, employment insecure, health care expensive and livelihoods are under...

-The United Nations   An estimated 10 million people across the Horn of Africa are facing a severe food crisis following a prolonged drought in the region, with child malnutrition rates in some areas twice the emergency threshold amid high food prices that have left families desperate, the United Nations reported today. In some areas of Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and Uganda, drought conditions are the worst in 60 years, the...

-Express News Service   After initial refusal to sanction funds under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to the six districts under CBI scanner, the Centre on Monday released Rs 170 crore for the wage employment programme. “The Government received the Central assistance and this has been distributed among six districts,” said Panchayati Raj Secretary PK Jena.  Though the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) released the first installment of `...