The report presents a mixed picture. Over the past 25 years, there have been notable improvements in child well-being in the group of countries examined in this report: steady decline in child mortality, overall reduction in adolescent suicide and increase in school completion rates. But the last five years have …
SEVERAL messages emerge from the analysis of crash programmes to harvest rainwater in Gujarat and ap. It is amply clear that the government of Gujarat has been much more successful in addressing the need of the hour than the AP government. POLITICIANS' RESPONSE: The way the political establishment has gone …
It was quite visible in several districts, whether it was Rajkot, Junagadh or Jamnagar in Saurashtra or Bhuj in Kachchh. People in several villages of these drought-prone regions looked a lot more confident in September 2000 about dealing with drought in the future. Barely four months ago, they had looked …
What does JFM lack? Even today, most of the major decisions are taken by the forest department. Only a small part of the decision making process has been transferred to the village community, and that too only for degraded forests. Another drawback is that only 15-20 per cent of the …
What is the Rainwater Club? In 1995, my wife and I, along with some friends, started the Rainwater Club. Its members include professionals and individuals interested in managing water. One of the main objectives of the club is to disseminate information about rainwater harvesting (RWH) to professionals as well as …
In 1990, senior government officials gathered at Paro to draft broad parameters for the country’s development agenda. The conclusion was the “Paro Resolution on Environment and Sustainable Development”, a statement that redefined sustainability in the Bhutanese context. It read as, “The capacity and the political will to effectively address today’s …
With modernisation has come the pressure on the forests. Though almost three-fourths of the country is still covered by dense foliage, the demands from a growing population can put unprecedented demands on them. Be it for construction, fuelwood consumption, infrastructure development, it cannot be underestimated. At the same time, 60 …
T he challenges that Bhutan is faced with are indeed daring, but rather than taking corrective measures, one cannot deny the fact that the government is taking proactive steps to mitigate the evils of development. For instance, air pollution. Though not of the proportion Indian metros like New Delhi are …
On the road to destiny The tradition-bound Himalayan kingdom readies itself to brace modernism In 1958, when the then Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, went to Bhutan on a state visit, the only way he could reach the capital Thimpu was over land. He demanded to be met at the …
What is the community health system? The concept of the community health system evolved by the Foundation of Research in Community Health ( frch ), is based on decentralisation of the existing health care system. The concept was developed after extensive research and involves training of the village women to …
What is traditional ecological knowledge? The agricultural practices of indigenous people perfected over a period of time is termed as traditional ecological knowledge. Most of the farmers have been using this knowledge for making their agricultural production more yielding. Are there instances were such knowledge has not been validated? The …
nature has a way of moderating the effects of good and evil. Down the years humankind has demonstrated a general disregard for natural resources and often exploitated bio-diversity to the hilt. Fortunately, this has been coun-tered by a few dedicated people engaged in protecting and conserving nature without any ulterior …
after an extensive consultation process involving stakeholders, the Central government has brought about a legislation, the Biological Diversity Bill, 2000, with salient features relating to access to biological resources of the country and securing sharing of benefits with local people. This has come as a result of public pressure and …
there are parched river beds as well as flowing rivulets; water at depths of 3-5 metres and dry wells even at 60 metres; hectares of land filled with cacti and areas lush with mango, lime, even water melon: the contrasts cannot be more stark among villages in Gujarat. On a …
After a six-year-long battle India has finally managed to see a patent application filed for an extract of the neem tree be rejected in a European court. The decision by the European Patent Office invalidated a patent granted jointly to the us department of agriculture ( usda ) and the …
Is there a comprehensive wetland management policy in India? There is neither a policy nor a plan for wetland management in India. Ad-hocism prevails without understanding the science or the system. There have been plans to make a draft policy and submit it to the government for consideration, but I …
THE reality of participation has often differed from the rhetoric. In fact, much development, which is participatory in nature, has remained top-down in practice. This may be so because even though participation has been promoted, there has been no change in personal attitudes and more so in the bureaucratic set …
Ninety per cent of the 50,000 persons who died in the October 29, 1999, super cyclone that hit the Ersama block in coastal Orissa would be alive today - if only the population there had been evacuated inland, beyond the reach of the three 10-metre-high tidal waves that swept away …
There is no doubt in the minds of anybody that the world is steadily heading towards a global water crisis. For one water was always a scarce resource and of late the scarcity is growing. Coupled to this is the problem of pollution of water sources by domestic sewage, agricultural …
following the Arab oil embargo in 1973, when queues for petrol lengthened at petrol pumps all over usa and Europe, the Wall Street Journal carried a front-page feature on a South American community that had "solved" the energy crisis by devising equipments powered by renewable energy sources. The report was …
SIX years of research and policy experiments, and first hand observation by the World Bank has revealed that many industries in poor and developing countries are running cleaner than a decade ago. A World Bank report titled Greening Industry: New Roles for Communities, Markets and Governments states this trend is …
