-The Hindustan Times Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has aptly described the persistence of mass undernutrition in India as a "national shame". What is even more shameful, however, is the passivity of the government - and of the country - towards this humanitarian emergency. The passivity begins with a reluctance to face the facts. The first step towards more effective nutrition policies in India is regular monitoring of the nutrition status of...
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Slow Poison-A Srinivas
-The Hindu Business Line Arsenic and fluoride contaminated water has condemned millions to live wasted lives in West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Business Line visited several villages in the affected regions for this special report by A. Srinivas. Sixty-nine-year-old Renubala Ari of Deganga village in West Bengal's North 24 Parganas district is counting her last days. But it is not her death that worries her. Blind in both eyes and with painful...
More »Law mooted to curb misuse of SC/ST funds-Divya Trivedi
-The Hindu To bridge the gap in development between the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and non-SCs and STs, a coalition of more than 150 organisations is demanding a national law to prevent, once and for all, the diversion, non-release, non-implementation and lapsing of the Special Component Plans for SCs/STs. In response to the coalition's longstanding demands, the National Advisory Council's guidance and the letter Sonia Gandhi wrote to the Prime Minister...
More »Tripura, Kerala open the door for women in panchayats -Anuja and Liz Mathew
-Live Mint The experience of Kerala and Tripura shows how panchayati raj can help in the empowerment of women Chulubari (Tripura)/Kanjikuzhy (Kerala): Her relatives warned Hena Das, a resident of Chulubari in Tripura, against taking up political office because it wasn't "meant for women". Das disregarded the warnings. Two years on, she has no regrets. She also has no male colleagues; her fellow representatives on the board of an 12-member panchayat are all...
More »Shocking: 336% rise in child rape cases in India since 2001 -Satya Prakash
-The Hindustan Times As protests erupt against the sexual assault on a five-year-old girl in the capital, a report has revealed that child rape cases in India have witnessed 336% rise since 2001. Citing National Crimes Record Bureau (NCRB) figures, the report by Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) stated that 48,338 child rape cases were recorded during 2001-11, which was an increase of 336% in such cases since 2001 when only...
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