The implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 has created controversy in West Bengal. The gram sabha, the basic unit in the process of forest rights recognition, has been replaced by the gram sansad, denoting the village level constituency under the panchayati raj system. This has been followed by contiguous arrangements as well as initiatives which are inconsistent with the Act....

‘Ek Cup Chya’, India’s first and only movie on the Right to Information Act, was screened by PCGT, an NGO working with RTI on Friday at the Indian Merchant Chambers. The film, which is in Marathi with English sub-titles, was made in 2009 by national award-winning directors Sumithra Bhave and Sunil Sukhtankar and produced by Dr Yashwant Oak. It features well-known Marathi actors like Kishore Kadam, Sunil Sukhthankar, Devika Daftardar, Ashwini Giri...

Jharkhand’s implementation of the Centre’s flagship scheme to grant land rights to forest dwellers has been extremely poor, ringing hollow promises by successive governments to uphold rights of over three lakh tribals of the state. According to a report prepared by a 19-member committee constituted by the Union ministry of environment and forests, 24 districts of Jharkhand had granted land rights to a Mere 7,207 forest dwellers under Scheduled Tribes and...

What are the poor most concerned about? After meeting families in 175 Indian villages in the last decade, Anirudh Krishna, says the poor's greatest worry is their children's future. With a manner of a school teacher, Professor Krishna, who teaches at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University in the US, has led a team meeting poor families to find out why poverty persists. The research also includes...

At a time when some of the poorest belts of India are suffering from a monsoon failure the government, has decided to let lakhs of tonnes of food grain turn inedible in the godowns rather than give it to the needy. Ironically, it has used the proposed National Food Security Act as an excuse to not distribute the grains to the needy. The Supreme Court in its last hearing had...