In an upstairs classroom at a residential school in Mal, near Lucknow, the girls are revising for their exams. As the light starts to fade at the glassless windows, each girl takes a brightly coloured plastic lamp and carries it to her space on the floor. There is no electricity, but the lamps are solar powered. They have been donated jointly by Swedish company Ikea and the United Nations Children’s...

A conspiracy to siphon off MGNREGS funds to the tune of Rs 70 lakh by data manipulation has come to light in Jamkhandi taluk. The Hirepadasalagi gram panchayat members have alleged that fake bills have been created by entering false data in the Management Information System (MIS) meant exclusively to maintain accounts of the job guarantee scheme. The entire exercise has been carried out clandestinely without the knowledge of gram panchayat. The data...

Normal life has been disrupted in many parts of India after the country's main opposition parties began a 12-hour strike to protest against the increase in prices of fuel. West Bengal, Kerala and Bihar states along with Mumbai were worst affected. Businesses were shut, schools and colleges closed and public transport thin in the affected states. The government has raised fuel prices - a move that will add nearly one percentage point to...

The government has written to all states to ensure better sanitation facilities, including separate toilets and free napkins, to check the increasing dropout rate among girls once they reach puberty. In a letter to all state secretaries, the rural development ministry has asked state governments to scale up the School Sanitation and Health Hygiene Education (SSHHE) programme under the ministry’s total sanitation campaign. Written by J.S. Mathur, joint secretary, department of drinking...

Chanchala Devi always wanted a house. Not a mud-and-stick hut, like her current home in this desolate village in the mineral-rich, corruption-corroded state of Jharkhand, but a proper brick-and-mortar house. When she heard that a government program for the poor would give her about $700 to build that house, she applied immediately. As an impoverished day labourer from a downtrodden caste, she was an ideal candidate for the grant. Yet she...