When Sujatha’s husband learned that she had conceived just five months after they got married, he became agitated over what he called her "ill-timed pregnancy". To worsen her husband’s anxiety, a test to determine the sex of the foetus showed she was carrying a girl. Sujatha, a public school teacher, and her husband, a civil engineer – who asked that their full names be withheld – are from well-off and educated...

“This war is between a small minority of exploiters and toiling masses” The Maoists have promised to “rehabilitate” all Special Police Officers (SPOs) in Chhattisgarh who sever all connections with the State machinery and return to their villages, according to a signed press release dated July 7. The Communist Party of India (Maoist) release was issued in the backdrop of a July 5 Supreme Court ruling that the use of armed SPOs...

Casual work, self-employment still rule Q&A Why are fewer women working? Education schemes and higher wages of men are keeping them home for longer. Why is casual work growing? The biggest employment scheme, NREGA, employs casual workers. Why is self-employment down? The least-paying jobs in the self-employment sector are worse than NREGA entitlements. *** The latest official figures on employment say this: a typical Indian worker is male, starts working in his mid-20s, is presumably better educated than...

The Supreme Court order against the Salwa Judum’s vigilantism in Chhattisgarh must be read by all, especially government officials. The details of the civil war in the tribal districts of Chhattisgarh are largely unknown to most readers of this newspaper. For the region is remote and inaccessible, and easily ignored by the national media.   This civil war pits, on the one side, Maoist extremists, and, on the other, a band of...

-The Economic Times   Rural Indian households are spending more on consumer goods like durables, beverages and services than five years ago, shows the latest expenditure data that debunks the notion that rapid growth in recent years did not benefit the hinterlands. The household consumer expenditure survey for 2009-10, released by the National Sample Survey Office ( NSSO )) on Friday, shows rising real spending in rural areas, even though it...