-Deccan Herald The life expectancy for Dalits and Adivasis is similar to those of the poorest countries in the world The life expectancies of Adivasis and Dalits in India are significantly lower than upper-caste Hindus, a new study reported using decade-old government data on 20 million individuals from nine states. The life expectancy differences of more than four years in Adivasis, three years in Dalits and one year among Muslims as against upper-caste...

-Press release by the Right to Food Campaign Secretariat dated February 23, 2022 * 66 percent respondents said that their income has decreased compared to the pre-pandemic period * 80 percent reported some form of food insecurity, 25 percent reported severe food insecurity * 41 percent said that nutritional quality of their diet deteriorated compared to the pre-pandemic period * 67 percent could not afford cooking gas in the month preceding the survey. * 45...

-The Hindu Hunger Watch-2 finds income dip and hunger, despite no national lockdown. India’s second wave that didn’t see a national lockdown like in the first failed to significantly alleviate economic distress and hunger among the poor, according to a survey of 6,500 respondents in 14 States. The survey, Hunger Watch–2, was commissioned by the Right To Food Campaign and The Centre for Equity Studies from December–2021 to January 2022 to evaluate economic...

-Newsclick.in Major budgetary allocation cuts in crucial schemes for women, children and vulnerable sections are indicative of the government’s lopsided priorities. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget has helped reinforce one home truth -- that India is divided into the salaried section and a vast underbelly, including the middle class who have been edged into poverty due to job losses suffered during the COVID pandemic. Coming out of the pandemic’s ‘third wave’, issues of...

-The Telegraph NREGA Watch finds low funds, delayed wage payment defeating spirit Ranchi: Frustrating budget allocation, delayed payment of wages and contractors-middlemen-official nexus, among other factors, are defeating the spirit of the rural job scheme under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 in Jharkhand. A report card released on Wednesday by NREGA Watch, an NGO monitoring the scheme in the state, on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of commencement...