Seldom rural citizens get the chance to meet high-level officials who are responsible for delivery of public services and implement pro-poor schemes. But this was made possible thanks to the Accountability Yatra, which is taking place in Rajasthan since December 2015. It is indeed a rare opportunity to find a District Education Officer (DEO) being asked directly by a simple villager in a public meeting that in how many school...
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‘Urban poor own nominal assets’ -Samarth Bansal
-The Hindu On an average, rural and urban households own assets worth Rs.10 lakh and Rs.23 lakh respectively. The average asset holding of the bottom 10 per cent of urban Indian households is around Rs. 291, new data from the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) show. Most households reported owning some kind of physical or financial assets, the survey, conducted in 2012-13 and made public on Friday, shows. On an average, rural and...
More »The media’s caste: How it’s to blame for Rohith Vemula’s death -Karthikeyan Damodaran
-Hindustan Times The whole society is culpable in Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s death but the focus should also be on why the media can be held responsible for this heart-wrenching case of suicide. Vemula wished to reach the stars and dreamt of becoming a Carl Sagan but became yet another victim of institutionalised discrimination based on caste. His death has turned into a livewire, sparking unseen levels of protest across India from...
More »How Do We Combat Droughts?
-Economic and Political Weekly Agriculture cannot be revived without a different approach to water, soil, crops and research. For the second year in succession, rainfall in the monsoon season has been less than normal. As many as 302 out of the 640 districts in the country have been declared drought-hit and the impact of the drought is the severest in nine major states of south, central and east India. It is striking...
More »Growing crackdown on activists
-The Hindu The audacious and unprovoked attack last week on a group of activists who held a peaceful rally in Rajasthan can only be explained in terms of the rising resentment on the part of the ruling class towards civil society organisations demanding accountability. Flagged off by social activist Aruna Roy, the Jawabdehi Yatra was aimed to spread awareness about government schemes and raise the issue of accountability in their implementation....
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