-Down to Earth Census data shows Bihar among the three states with lowest proportion of houses which can be categorised ‘good’ What made Bihar vulnerable to the Nepal earthquake and led to the reported deaths of 38 persons in the state? Proximity to Nepal and, therefore, the epicenter is certainly a primary reason. The other major reason is the condition of houses in the state. Almost all the deaths due to an...
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Cash for Food--A Misplaced Idea -Dipa Sinha
-Economic and Political Weekly Direct benefi t transfers in the form of cash cannot replace the supply of food through the public distribution system. Though it is claimed otherwise, DBT does not address the problems of identifying the poor ("targeting") and DBT in place of the PDS will expose the vulnerable to additional price fluctuation. Further, if the PDS is dismantled, there will also be no need or incentive for procurement...
More »Sex ratio kills honeymoon dream in Gujarat -Himanshu Kaushik & Bharat Yagnik
-The Times of India AHMEDABAD/GANDHINAGAR: PM Narendra Modi may be the most famous 'bachelor' from Gujarat, but the state is home to 6.29 lakh unheralded men above 30 and 40 years who are unmarried - according to Census 2011. And the majority of them are not single by choice. The number is a manifestation of the skewed sex ratio in Gujarat, which has 919 women per 1,000 men and only 886 girls...
More »Govt planning to relax laws to allow children below age 14 to work in select family businesses -Chetan Chauhan
-Hindustan Times The government plans to relax child labour laws and allow children below the age of 14 to work in select family enterprises if it doesn't hamper their education, saying it wants to encourage learning at home as it leads to entrepreneurship. A draft provision in the Child Labour Prohibition Act says the prohibition on child labour will not apply if they are helping the family in fields, forests and home-based...
More »India’s unrealised maternity entitlement -Vanita Leah Falcao & Jasmeet Khanuja
-The Hindu The Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana was introduced to provide partial wage compensation during pregnancy, but various issues plague its implementation The latest official figures indicate that India is well short of meeting the Millennium Development Goals that pledged to reduce the country's maternal mortality ratio (MMR) by three quarters and the infant mortality rate (IMR) by two-thirds. The Sample Registration System (SRS), 2013, records MMR at 167 per 1,00,000...
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