Decades of violent insurgency in Assam have forced many women, including homemakers, to take to prostitution after their husbands or close family members were killed or maimed in terror attacks. The busting of a sex racket here bears testimony to this. During her questioning by city police, Pinky, 25, a divorcee, told police she was forced into prostitution to make both ends meet. "She did it under compulsion and her...
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81% of class V kids in TN can't read English by M Ramya
Nearly 65% of class V students in rural areas of Tamil Nadu can’t read even a class II textbook in their mother tongue, 45% don’t know subtraction and nearly 81% can’t read simple English sentences, the Annual Status of Education Report for 2009, compiled by Delhi-based NGO Pratham Foundation, has revealed. The findings of the survey, which had a sample size of 33,000 students in both private and government schools,...
More »Giving a voice to India's villagers by Geeta Pandey
A group of villagers sit on a shaded platform on a hot afternoon in Mirche village. The topic of discussion today is the Mongra barrage - a dam-like structure constructed on the nearby Shivnath river. The conversation is animated. The villagers discuss the displacement the barrage has caused and the lack of compensation from the authorities. "It's been four years since the dam was built. Where is our compensation," asks...
More »Slow but steady success by Reetika Khera and Karuna Muthiah
Tamil Nadu's success in implementing the NREGA shows its commitment to social welfare, and the way ahead for other states. The share of women in the NREGA workforce has remained high from the beginning and is the highest in the country The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), enacted in 2005, has had a varied record so far. In many states, implementation has been lame (e.g. Bihar and Gujarat) or...
More »A Bellyful Of Proposals by Bhavdeep Kang
THE FLAGSHIP scheme of UPA II, the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA), has become a policymaker’s nightmare. If suggestions by the Finance Ministry (reportedly at the instance of Congress President Sonia Gandhi) and the state governments are incorporated, the yearly food grain requirement would be close to 80 million tonnes. But considering food grain procurement in an average year is 40 to 41 million tonnes — half the amount...
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