JHABUA, India — Inside the drab district hospital, where dogs patter down the corridors, sniffing for food, Ratan Bhuria’s children are curled together in the malnutrition ward, hovering at the edge of starvation. His daughter, Nani, is 4 and weighs 20 pounds. His son, Jogdiya, is 2 and weighs only eight. Landless and illiterate, drowned by debt, Mr. Bhuria and his ailing children have staggered into the hospital ward after falling...
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Job scheme boosts rural household income 74% by Sandip Das
The employment guarantee scheme has resulted in a big spurt in not only wages but also household income in the rural areas, an analysis of the data since the beginning of the programme in 2006-07 show. While rural wages have risen 38% since 2006-07, household income saw a 74% increase in the four years up to 2009-10. This is despite the fact that just 13% of the 5 crore beneficiary families...
More »Rich states lag in use of MP funds by Mahendra Kumar Singh
Delhi MPs have failed to make optimum use of funds under MP Local Area Development (MPLAD) scheme, clocking up a utilisation rate of just 86.93%, well below the national average of 90.32%. According to a report of the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, Delhi was placed among laggard states when it came to utilisation of funds till July this year. Since the MPLAD scheme was launched in 1993, total...
More »Forest Rights Act losing steam as officials play with rules by Mahim Pratap Singh
The implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act in Madhya Pradesh faces a host of problems due to a strange interpretation of the Act by the Forest Department. While the department's opposition to the Act is no secret — several petitions have been filed against it in the Supreme Court by retired forest officials or organisations run by them — new information obtained...
More »Half of India’s population lives below the poverty line by Arun Kumar
According to a new Oxford University study, 55 percent of India’s population of 1.1 billion, or 645 million people, are living in poverty. Using a newly-developed index, the study found that about one-third of the world’s poor live in India. The Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) has been developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) as a more precise and comprehensive means of...
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