Amidst concerns over budgetary cuts in social sector spending, a recent statement from Shri Rao Inderjit Singh, Minister of State for PLAnning reveals that unemployment rate has risen much sharper among the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) vis-à-vis the overall population. Replying to a starred question by Shri PL Punia regarding Human Development Index (HDI) of SCs and STs, the Minister of State for PLAnning said on 6 February,...

-Scroll.in The Paharia Adivasi community says they are cheated in their banking transactions and don't know what to do with the debit cards. Just days after the Central government’s demonetisation announcement on November 8 kicked off a major push for digital payments, Kusheshwar Paharia, a resident of Nathgoda village in Jharkhand’s Godda district, received a thick packet in the mail. It contained a letter from the State Bank of India, with which he...

-The Indian Express The enhancement of state powers without control or transparency is not being done against our wishes The clamour for security, accountability and transparency is leading to unfettered increase in the power of states. We are enacting law after law, introducing technology after technology, to render citizens transparent to the state. But at the same time, we are weakening protections and consenting to technologies in a way that makes the...

-The Hindu Disappointed by the government’s track record in implementing anti-corruption measures, a group of eminent citizens has decided to take the initiative of setting up a forum to hear comPLAints of corruption or malfeasance from whistleblowers. Called the Citizens Whistleblowers Forum (CWF), it would “act as a unique, credible PLAtform to provide much-needed confidence to whistleblowers” to expose, without fear, “cases of corruption or wilful misuse of powers”, said a statement...

-The Indian Express Overall unemployment has increased by approximately 31 per cent in the last 5 years. New Delhi: THE UNEMPLOYMENT rate has increased by more than 56 per cent among Scheduled Castes, by 69 per cent among Schedules Tribe communities, and nearly 62 per cent among Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the last five years, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. Overall unemployment has increased by approximately 31 per...