-TheWire.in India’s midday meal scheme (MDMS) reaches more than 11 crore children across 12 lakh government schools around the country. Based on a Supreme Court order in 2001, states introduced a cooked meal in schools – replacing the earlier system of monthly “dry rations”. Despite many achievements, the scheme tends to make headlines for the wrong reasons. A recent audit report by the CAG found a number of implementation gaps, including...
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Data in doubt -Divya Trivedi
-Frontline The NCRB data used to justify the new law bringing down the age of responsibility for criminal action are open to interpretation. Often the same data can be interpreted in different ways to arrive at contrary conclusions. Portions of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data have been quoted ad nauseam by the government and the media alike to justify the changes made in the juvenile justice law. Experts from the...
More »MGNREGA: Minister writes to Jaitley, seeks more funds for job scheme
-The Indian Express Twelve states presently show a negative balance with long overdue unpaid wages, threatening the continuation of the scheme. Despite the recent revival, there is crisis looming for Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) as the Rural Development Ministry has exhausted more than 95 per cent of its budget provision for the scheme. The fund squeeze has forced Rural Development Minister Birender Singh to write to Finance...
More »1 in 7 Indians is at risk of malaria, says WHO report -Ekatha Ann John
-The Times of India CHENNAI: The World Health Organization says close to one in seven people in India are at risk of contracting malaria. In a report that should worry public Health officials, it says India, along with Ethiopia, Pakistan and Indonesia accounts for 80% of all malaria cases worldwide, but the country allocates the lowest funding for malaria control in the world. The report, based on the data collated by the National...
More »Despite soaring child-Health spending, 40 million Indian children are stunted -Prachi Salve and Saumya Tewari
-IndiaSpend.com India accounts for 27% of the world's neonatal deaths and 21% of all child deaths Here are some Health statistics for Indian children five years or younger: 38.7% are stunted (below normal height for the age), 19.8% are wasted (underweight and short) and 42.4% are underweight. This in a country that boasts a 40-year-old national child-Health programme – now among the world’s largest – and increased spending on child Health 200% over...
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