-Down to Earth Govt agencies have procured hardly 11 per cent of targeted procurement of paddy since November 15 last year Small and marginal farmers in Bihar are unhappy and worried by the state government’s poor procurement of paddy. The slow speed of paddy procurement that started in Bihar on November 15, 2019, has forced farmers to sell their crop to traders and agents of rice mills, according to reports from districts. The government’s...

-Down to Earth This comes even as rural India is suffering its worst unemployment crisis in 45 years The Union government slashed budgetary allocation for its flagship Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Act (MGNREGA) in the Budget 2020-21, at a time when rural India is facing all sorts of crises including rising food bills and highest unemployment in the last five decades MGNREGA guarantees at least 100 days of employment to adults...

-Down to Earth Governments in India define farmers as those who own land, which is usually not the case with women Women farmers from six states demanded a comprehensive agriculture policy that would recognise them and offer relief and compensation to the kin of male farmers who had commit suicide, at a recent event in the national capital. Around 60 women farmers from Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Punjab took...

-Down to Earth Activists voice concern about some recommendations by panel The subject of ‘health’ must be transferred to the Concurrent List of the Indian Constitution from the State List, the high level group (HLG) formed for the health sector by the 15th Finance Commission has said. Since issues like medical education and family planning fall under the concurrent list, health also should, the panel said in a report submitted recently to...

-Down to Earth Doctors at Odisha’s Vimsar hospital say if primary healthcare improves, the death toll at bigger hospitals would be fewer The lack of primary healthcare facilities leads to an increase in the number of infant deaths at bigger hospitals, a case study from Odisha shows. Seventeen per cent of the infants (one year-olds) admitted to the Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Science and Research (Vimsar) at Burla in Odisha’s Sambalpur...