The National Food-For-Work Programme, precursor to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, is intended to provide work to the poorest of the poor, to enable them to earn enough to eat. An ambitious idea, but is it working on the ground? A recent survey by student volunteers unearths serious irregularities Kunal Gautam, a Delhi School of Econom
The Crocin you buy from your local drugstore at 80-90 paise per tablet costs just 15 paise to make. Dr Anant Phadke delves into the various forms of profiteering in the pharmaceutical sector and suggests ways to oppose it There are a number of reasons why the prices of drugs in India , indeed all over the world, are so high. One of them is the busines
On a search for its Woman of the Year, the Goan newspaper Gomantak Times came across the extraordinary Sashikala Govekar, a fisherwoman who breathes life into Mapusa market, and a sarpanch who is much respected in Nerul She is a mother, a sister, a professional, a provider, a fighter, a struggler, a realist, a radical, a performer, a perfectionist
The environment and its management is a major part of Bhutan’s development plan, and one of the four pillars of Gross National Happiness. Bhutanese law requires 60% of the country to remain forested for all time. Already, over a quarter of Bhutan’s land has been set aside in the form of protected areas Gross National Happiness (GNH) as an a
A well-loved monarch who is constantly trying to push power away from himself, governance that is simultaneously secular and Buddhist…Manoj Nadkarni finds his cynicism about Gross National Happiness rapidly eroding as he continues his travels through Bhutan In spite of the now common criticism of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of a country's
The ban on dance bars in Mumbai is ostensibly to protect youth from the sexualised environment of the bars. Instead of keeping the shadows and silences around sexuality intact, we need a rights-based approach to young people’s sexuality, giving them the right to information that has a direct bearing on their health and well-being “When these g
The state government has embarked on a campaign to rid Mumbai of obscenity. The dance bars which employ 75,000 women, are amongst the targets. But is this just about dance bars or about the increasingly strident notions of purity and pollution, and about fundamentalism using the bodies of women as their locus of control? Don't use your right hand
Disabled activist Naseema Hurzuk’s story is representative of the trials and victories of millions of disabled people in India. In these excerpts from her book Naseema, The Incredible Story, she writes about Mohammed who has no hands but can hit a four in a cricket match, about wheelchair basketball matches in England, and more Naseema is the touchi
In tsunami-affected regions of Tamil Nadu, where CSOs are hard at work on rehabilitation, there is evidence that some of the lessons of Gujarat and Orissa have not been learnt -- communities are not being sufficiently involved in the rehabilitation effort, and inappropriate shelters stand empty of inhabitants For Fharzana Deesawalla, a volun
The tsunami has also dredged up caste, class and livelihood tussles that must be dealt with in the process of rehabilitation. In Bommiyarpalyam village in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu, it’s the fisherfolk versus the upper-caste Vanniyars versus the dalits It is a warm day in the third week of April in the Bommiyarpalyam village of Villupuram
While the world focuses on the fishing communities that bore the brunt of the tsunami, spare a thought for the Irulas of Tamil Nadu. These tribals, once displaced from their forest homes and traditional occupations, have now lost their pathetic settlements and precarious livelihoods in coastal villages. In Nemeli, some Irulas have finally found a home <
Bhutan pumps 20% of its GDP into health and education. Ninety per cent of the population has some form of health coverage, and the UN’s World Food Programme is readying to exit the country. So, is a developed nation one that has a high GDP, or one like Bhutan, which refuses to accept that consuming more and producing more is the road to happiness?
For weeks after the tsunami, children in the fishing villages around Chennai displayed signs of trauma, and viewed the sea that had engulfed their homes and disrupted their lives with fear. Four months after the disaster, they’re returning to school, and returning also, to the giving sea It was a Sunday, a day for the children of Ururkuppam and Oddaik
A number of Indian companies have recently begun commercially exploiting the varied uses of seabuckthorn, a deciduous shrub commonly found in the Himalayan region. However, a unique partnering for sustainable development between an internationally supported Himalayan non-government organisation, a group of traditional medical practitioners and a number of Tibetan coop
More than a few people who have seen the recent Hindi film Swades speak of the sequences that they experienced as eloquent: for example, when protagonist Mohan Bhargava is returning from a visit to a village, where he apparently grasps, for the first time, the relentless realities of poverty and caste-based exploitation in India. At a small railway station, a young bo
By Arshia Sattar Yasmine Kabir’s incredibly moving film looks at the plight of migrant workers who leave Bangladesh under economic pressure to find better-paying employment elsewhere. In 1995, more than 240,000 Bangladeshis left their homes in search of work. The film opens with black and white shots of the hundreds who throng the agencies tha
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