Status report on behalf of MCD in the matter of news item titled "Greater Kailash lesser comfort life amid foul air mosquitoes" appearing in the Times of India dated 22/04/2024. In the original application, registered suo motu, the tribunal is examining the issue of emitting intolerable stench from a drain …
Using a field survey, this paper examines the empowerment effects of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme on rural women in Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. It argues that women workers have gained from the scheme primarily because of the paid employment opportunity, and benefits have been realised through …
All discussion of illegal mining, specially of iron ore, has to keep in mind two things. First, the nature of legality cannot be defined in narrow terms of mining laws, but needs to cover the environmental and social goods that lie in its ambit. Second, the massive growth in mining …
The State Finance Commission, although a technical and quasijudicial constitutional entity like the Union Finance Commission, has to help local governments plan for economic development and deliver social justice and public services at the local level. This article evaluates the history of the performance of SFCs in general and shows …
The relationship between capital and nature gravitates towards a policy of primary accumulation. This article provides an analysis of the imposition of capitalist property rights over natural resources in India as processes of primary accumulation. These processes are evidenced by the construction of large dams and mines, in addition to …
The enrolment of the poor in the flagship health insurance scheme, the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana in its third year of operation does not show any sign of it covering all the poor by 2012. This article estimates the proportion of the eligible below the poverty line families enrolled for …
An institution of shared well irrigation has existed for long in Punjab since the days of the Persian wheel about which there is little information available. This institution which is based on the intertwined relations of social structure and physical aspects of irrigation continues to be a significant part of …
The Saakshar Bharat Mission aims at 80% adult literacy and is to be implemented by gram panchayats. However, not only are these local bodies already heavily burdened with a multitude of roles and responsibilities, it is also a fallacy to presume that their members are adult literacy experts. While adult …
Drawing on a household and village-level community survey of social income, this paper offers a critique of the widespread use of targeting in Indian social policy primarily through the use of the below poverty line card system, to include or exclude groups from access to subsidised goods and sometimes to …
This paper analyses the pesticide use pattern in agriculture and associated management system in Kerala. The recent declining rate in total consumption of pesticides is not a sign of relief as the use of harmful chemicals is rising. The pesticides used in agriculture include chemicals, which are banned and those …
The mainstream development literature tries to understand the changes in land relations through the lens of land reforms alone. Kerala provides an appropriate setting to understand how far radical redistributive land reforms have succeeded in transforming inequity in landownership. Our findings based on a micro-level village study show that the …
Climate change will affect water supplies in south Asia, where high-intensity floods and droughts are expected in the future. Increasing water storage is a key adaptation strategy, and the experience of irrigation tanks illustrates both the potential and challenges of this adaptation response. Although there are over 2,08,000 tanks in …
