-The Hindustan Times   With India accounting for 58% of all open defecations in the world, the government on Sunday sought active involvement of all parties concerned including women panchayat representatives to sensitise the people in creating awareness about public hygiene. "On the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti, I would like to mention one such case which is a shame on all of us. No other country in the world where about 60% women...

India accounts for 58 percent of those who practice open defecation across the globe. In its finding for the year 2008, UNICEF estimated that as many as 63.8 crore people, that is, 54 percent of the country's population, practice open defecation due to inadequate sanitation. On this ignominious list, Indonesia is a distant second with 5.7 crore people lacking toilet facilities, and it accounts for 5 percent of the hapless population which...

-IANS   The ongoing enumeration for a socio-economic census in the country will not be affected by the poverty line cut-off spelled out by the Planning Commission, according to a senior rural development ministry adviser. The Planning Commission informed the Supreme Court Tuesday that poverty line could be provisionally placed at around Rs.32 a day per capita in urban areas and Rs.26 in rural areas. Manjula Krishnan, chief economic adviser in the minstry, said...

Torrential rain and fresh landslides on Saturday hampered search and rescue operations in North sikkim's quake-affected areas. The death toll of the sikkim quake stood at 77. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit sikkim on September 27. He will fly over north sikkim for an aerial survey of the quake-hit areas. State information secretary Karma Topgay said the sikkim government will give him a memorandum about the assistance needed from the...

‘Earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings do,’ is a saying sikkim’s native Lepchas love to quote, since the state’s mountains are known to tremble often. The truth of this statement again came to the fore in the recent earthquake. Lepchas, members of one of sikkim’s native communities with magical mythology and folklore, have been voicing their concerns over indiscriminate approvals to hydel projects in the hill state, especially those that seek to...