-The Indian Express Can wages paid to NREGA workers from scheduled castes be counted as money spent on SCs’ welfare? The Rural Development Ministry believes it can, but Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Kumari Selja doesn’t buy the argument. She has shot off a letter to the Planning Commission, questioning the rationale of including Rs 10,000 crore of NREGA funds in the SC sub-plan, under which a mandated 16.2% — the percentage...

-The Hindu A mix of social constraints and dearth of employment opportunities has kept women out of the labour market, leading to a huge opportunity cost to the nation Women in India face enormous challenges for their participation in the economy — in a way that mirrors the many injustices they suffer in the society at large. The labour participation rate of women — that is, the number of women in the...

-The Hindu Farmers bring their cattle to camp to provide water and fodder Shidewadi (Maharashtra): It’s Kavita Garje’s 10th day at the cattle camp and she can already predict the conditions for the next 10 months. “It didn’t rain at all this year, so our buffaloes have to be kept here at least till next September. We have no fodder or water for them,” the 13-year-old girl says, as she feeds her...

-Frontline The Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill is an attempt to circumvent the hurdles before acquisition, such as rehabilitation of land losers, without much increasing the cost of land. THE preamble to the draft Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (LARR) Bill is very noble; it talks about a “humane, informed, consultative and transparent process for land acquisition for industrialisation, development of essential infrastructural facilities and urbanisation with the least disturbance...

-The Hindu How gender sensitive are the government’s flagship programmes, probes a report to be released today Why is the concept of ‘citizen’ always a male? Why is the formulation of government policies always male centric leaving out the female counterpart that actually constitutes half the population and contributes in equal measure to the economy? Perhaps keeping this in mind, UN Women and economists have come up with a report on eight flagship...