-Frontline Former psephologist Yogendra Yadav, now a member of the political collective Swaraj Abhiyan, recently toured India’s drought-affected districts. He called it a Samvedna Yatra. During the tour, he took note of the agony in rural areas affected by what he calls “one of the worst droughts in independent India” The drought, according to him, has left farmers and the larger rural community in extreme distress, leading to damaging changes in...
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Political economy of welfare -Richard Mahapatra
-Down to Earth The BJP-led government's change of heart for big-ticket rural programmes says a lot about its dwindling political fortune India's current political season has a nostalgic tint. Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has apparently met party leaders to kickstart a campaign against the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA’S) overt efforts to softly kill the erstwhile government’s flagship programmes. Particularly, the NDA government’s political decisions to not pursue the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural...
More »Breastfeeding can cut child deaths, save Rs 4k crore per year -Himanshi Dhawan
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: While the enormous health benefits of universal and sustained breastfeeding of children are well known, new evidence suggests that there is a significant economic cost as well. Research by medical journal Lancet reports a loss of $0.6285 billion or about Rs 4,300 crore annually. Not just that. If India were to universalise breastfeeding in the coming years, it could reduce 13% of all under-5 deaths...
More »Bundelkhand’s drought-ravaged land leading to farmer suicides -Ranjan and Anupam Pateriya
-Hindustan Times Bhopal/Sagar: When 39-year-old Ram Dwivedi shot himself with a rifle in Uttar Pradesh’s water-starved Banda district a few months ago, it came as a shock even to local residents in the drought-ravaged Bundelkhand region. In the past few years, most people who committed suicide in the area were either tenants or small-time farmers. But despite having 20 acres of land, Dwivedi couldn’t generate enough income to sustain his six-member family. Hit...
More »Drought-hit Bundelkhand farmers now struggle to feed cattle
-IANS Bhopal: Many farmers in Bundelkhand are setting free their animals in the forests to survive, as the region is facing drought once again. There is nothing in the fields to graze on and there is not even fodder available for the cattle. Bundelkhand region comprises 13 districts of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. But the condition everywhere is the same. A shortfall in rainfall has led to loss in farm produce....
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