The scheme has reduced rural migration and promoted financial inclusion, but needs to create more durable assets. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) – the only government social welfare scheme named after the other Gandhi, not belonging to Nehru-Gandhi family – has recently completed five years. The performance of the scheme, considered a major pillar of UPA government's strategy of inclusive growth, has been a matter of debate. The...

The battle against poverty and inequity can be won only if governments focus on the welfare of adolescents, says a UNICEF report. FINALLY, it has been recognised that adolescents constitute a very critical category in the overall battle against poverty and inequity. It is for this reason that the United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) flagship report, “The State of the World's Children 2011”, focusses exclusively on adolescents and cautions against neglecting...

The big newspapers are Indian, as much as they are ethnic or regional in character. Their choice of news reflects the upward mobility of middle class India. This report is based on a recently concluded survey of what newspapers covered over a two month period in late 2010. Our study took ten newspapers in five states: Hindustan Times (Delhi), Dainik Jagran (Delhi), Telegraph, Ananda Bazar Patrika, Deccan Chronicle, Dinathanti, the Hindu...

We come to know about gender discrimination only through the media. Our knowledge about latest global or local gender reports is also media-dependent. But what do we know about the media’s own record of allowing space for women’s voice? The good news is that the mass media is beginning to come under the scanner on this count but the bad news is that the media’s own record is quite dismal. A...

The way number of poor in India is measured is under a legal scrutiny. The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the government in Right To Food case the efficacy of the below poverty line survey, to be held in June this year, if all the poor identified fail to get government benefit. The court asked the government to give reasons for the Planning Commission putting up a cap on the...