• Key Facts

• Farmers' suicides

• Rural distress

• Debt Trap

• Unemployment

• Migration

• GENDER

• Displacement

• Right to Food  

• Right to Work (MG-NREGA)

• Social Audit

• Right to Information

• Right to Education

• Forest and Tribal Rights

• Policy/ Action so far

• Poverty and inequality

• Hunger Overview

• Malnutrition

• HDI Overview

• Education  

• Public Health

• Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS)

• PDS/ Ration/ Food Security  

• MDGs

• Water and Sanitation

• Impact on Agriculture

• Time Bomb Ticking

• Social Justice

• Access to Justice

• Human Rights

• Corruption

• General Insecurity

• Disaster & Relief

MGNREGA improves school enrolment, education

A recent statistical study by Indian researchers suggest that the MNREGA program in rural Andhra Pradesh might be having a positive effect on school enrolment and grades by improving the bargaining power of women within their household, as a consequence of earning wages in the rural job security program. The study is based on data from rural households in 5...

Dismal Dalit Count in Indian Boardrooms

Guess what is the total percentage of dalit or tribal members in the boards of big Indian private and public sector companies listed on the stock exchange? Well, shocking as it might be, the real count is nearly zero. A fresh study conducted by D Ajit, Han Donker and Ravi Saxena reveals that at a time when the issues of ethnic...

SC’s Novartis judgement renews focus on accessible medicine

The recent Supreme Court judgment dismissing pharma giant Novartis’ claim for patent protections in India for its award-winning and prohibitively priced anti-leukemia drug Glivec has renewed the focus on accessibly-priced drugs – in particular the failure of the Indian public healthcare system and health policy to ensure affordable drugs for all. Studies show that as much as 70% of health...

Water: India’s Big Resource Challenge

The ongoing droughts and water crises in Maharashtra and Gujarat point to the multiple conflicts the beleaguered and scarce resource of water is likely to spark in the coming years. India is today the world’s largest consumer of groundwater, but it is clear that how we extract, harvest, distribute and manage our most precious resource cannot proceed along usual lines. The...

Forest Rights Act: Good, Bad and Ugly

Groups from across India gathered in Delhi recently to assess the Forest Rights Act’s journey since 2006. The law is often dubbed as ‘landmark’ because it ended the age-old illegality surrounding communities living in forest areas by entitling them to individual and community land title. It also went beyond the colonial paradigms of the forest bureaucracy to recognise community efforts...