Are millions of Indians being forced to leave their villages for cities and towns because there aren't enough jobs at home and farm incomes are drying up? Is this "distress migration" unprecedented in India's history? Award-winning journalist P Sainath thinks so. Examining the latest census data, he finds that India's urban population has risen more (91 million more than in the 2001 census) than the rural population (90.6 million more than...
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Census findings point to decade of rural distress by P Sainath
For first time since 1921, India's urban population goes up by more than its rural Is distress migration on a massive scale responsible for one of the most striking findings of Census 2011: that for the first time since 1921, urban India added more numbers to its population in a decade than rural India did? At 833.1 million, India's rural population today is 90.6 million higher than it was a decade ago....
More »Time yet before NREGA's achieves target: PM
-PTI Urging state governments not to 'fail the poor', Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday said the country had still to realise the 'full potential' of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) whose implementation had been 'uneven across states'. "We still have miles to go before we achieve the full potential of this unique legislation in annals of recent history. The performance of the programme, as I have mentioned, has been...
More »Centre woos professionals for better execution of programmes, schemes
With the bureaucratic machinery failing to deliver desired results, the Centre is tapping professionals from the open market to ensure better implementation of its flagship programmes, National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) and MGNREGA at both national and State level. It has invited letters for Expression of Interest (EOI) from qualified and experienced consultancy firms for management support for the NRLM which aims to mobilise seven crore below poverty level (BPL) households...
More »Land rush and sustainable food security by MS Swaminathan
Managing our soil and water resources in a sustainable and equitable manner needs a new political vision, which can be expressed through the proposed Land Acquisition Bill and the recently formed Global Soil Partnership. On the basis of a proposal I had made three years ago, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) launched a Global Soil Partnership for Food Security and Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation at a multi-stakeholder conference, held...
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