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Hope for domestic workers?
Karnataka was the first to notify minimum wages and working conditions for domestic labour. But in the six years since, not a single complaint about non-payment of minimum wages has been filed. A recent public hearing in Bangalore proposed several other measures to ensure that domestic workers are not exploited More... The case of the disappearing pondsAn RTI inquiry in Kusmal village in Orissa’s Nuapada district revealed that though in official records seven farm ponds have been built under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, not a single pond exists in reality. Across this district, which has high levels of migration, Rs 77 lakh has been misappropriated under the job guarantee scheme by unscrupulous administration officials at all levels More... Who gains from the Games?Viewers of the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa see only the multimillion-dollar stadiums constructed, not the poor who were displaced by them in Cape Town. Similarly, the Rs 20,000-crore Commonwealth Games jamboree will benefit only the posh heart of New Delhi, not its poorest citizens who are being evicted, says a new report from the Housing and Land Rights Network More... Tamil Nadu pioneers easy cervical cancer screeningCervical cancer affects millions in India. It can be effectively treated if diagnosed early. Now, the VIA/VILI kit, which costs only Rs 5 and can be used by any healthcare professional, is being introduced across Tamil Nadu, offering women the possibility of early detection and treatment More... Caste matters: What web matrimonials sayThey might be Web-savvy, well-educated, well-off and living in a big city, but almost all women looking for a partner on India’s popular matrimonial websites want to marry within their religion and within their caste as well More... ‘Caste no bar’? You’ve got to be jokingHow much does caste matter to young urban Indians, as reflected in the preferences they post on the hugely popular matrimonial websites? For almost everybody who hopes to find a life partner via the web matrimonial route, revealing one’s jati identity is a prerequisite for getting enquiries. This is Part 1 of a 2-part article on caste in matrimonial portals More... Bhopal's Children: Generation IIJustice for the survivors of Bhopal has many dimensions -- and it includes the recognition that there are helpless, limb-locked, smiling children who are paying a terrible price for a disaster that had occurred long before they were born. The Chingari rehabilitation and education centre has 250 children, most with cerebral palsy, on its rolls, all born of gas-affected communities More... The dry well of UPA promisesThe Wada Na Todo people’s movement for governance accountability assessed the UPA government’s achievements on livelihood, education, health and social exclusion one year into its second term and concluded that the government was focused more on image-building than people’s welfare More... India’s forests as carbon sinksThe Indian state has always looked at forests as a source of never-ending revenues. Now, in the context of climate change negotiations, our forests are being looked on as carbon sinks that could be worth a staggering USD 120 billion More... A grain in an empty bowl: Government services in the urban contextAnganwadis, ICDS and PDS are huge government programmes meant to cater to the health and nutritional requirements of the poor. Yet 72.4% of urban poor children in Madhya Pradesh are underweight, 60.4% are undernourished and almost nine out of 10 are anaemic. The fifth and final part of this series on food security of the urban poor finds out just where these schemes are going wrong More... Yellow metal bluesDespite being employed in the glamorous billion-dollar gold industry, India’s gold jewellery workers work long hours in inhuman conditions and are barely able to make ends meet. Indeed, many gold workers in Kolkata have left their trade in disgust to become rickshaw-pullers and vegetable vendors. Is this the end of the road for this traditional craft? More... ‘Push-pull’ agriculture stems migration into citiesMore than 25,000 small farmers in East Africa have multiplied yields with push-pull cultivation, in which Desmodium planted alongside maize pushes out pests while Napier grass planted along the borders pulls them in. The method could be used in India to good effect More... Why does India condone corruption?China recently executed two people involved in the melamine-adulterated milk powder scam. In India, thousands of lives are endangered by spurious drugs and adulterated food, and yet no action seems to be taken. Why, asks Suman Sahai More... A roof for the homelessKarnataka has come up with a draft housing policy which, while recognising housing as a need, does not recognise it as a ‘right’. Moreover, only 10% of the housing is for the socially and economically weaker sections, and the government has positioned itself as a ‘facilitator’ rather than as a ‘provider’, with the stated objective of involving the private sector More... What difference has the Forest Rights Act made?With a strong community forest management network in place, one would think that forest-dependent communities in Orissa would be upbeat about the Forest Rights Act. But even as people’s movements begin to use the Act as a weapon in their struggle, most communities are confused about the scope of the Act and the processes to be used to file community claims to forests More... |
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