Order of the National Green Tribunal in the matter of News item titled "DDA ignores directions to remove official constructions on floodplain builds more" appearing in The Hindu dated 18.04.2024 and Other dated 21/01/2025. The original application was registered suo motu based on the news item titled "DDA ignores directions …
Two approaches are available for identifying households below the poverty line – the score-based ranking approach proposed by the N C Saxena Committee and an alternative proposed by Jean Dreze and Reetika Khera. Comparing these approaches for Udupi district in Karnataka shows that the former does a fair job of …
In a state such as Odisha in which Dalit and tribal groups comprise about 40 per cent of the total population, the issue of ‘access’ to land and resources has apparently been central to all conflicts. For traditional communities, ‘access’ is directly linked to civilizational paradigms and cultural ethos, which …
This paper aims to understand the implications of implementing the Saxena Committee’s recommendations in respect of identifying the poor in India. Relative to the one currently in use, the application of the proposed methodology appears to be more beneficial in general to social groups such as scheduled tribes, most backward …
This paper attempts to review the recent performance of the economy and lists the priorities and challenges for the Twelfth Plan. The Indian economy will enter the Twelfth Plan period in an environment of great promise, but the next five years will also be a period of major challenges. The …
A survey by the Indian government in 2002 to determine households below poverty line (BPL) left out many poor families. Nearly a decade later, the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MORD) is trying to set the wrong right. But it is unable to decide on the criteria for identifying poor …
A survey by the Indian government in 2002 to determine households below poverty line (BPL) left out many poor families. Nearly a decade later, the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MORD) is trying to set the wrong right. But it is unable to decide on the criteria for identifying poor …
This paper attempts to measure the effect of castereservation policies on the provision of public goods and services in gram panchayats in Andhra Pradesh using data from the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. The investigation finds that the effect of reservation varies tremendously in different social, political, and institutional contexts, …
This article suggests how the Gandhi–Ambedkar–Narayanaguru–Marx visions can be synthesised in support of the movement for the liberation and empowerment of India’s dalits. It brings out the beginnings and evolution of Gandhji’s sensitivity and opposition to ‘untouchability’. His perception of ‘untouchability’ was initially limited to ‘touch-me-not-ism’, but deepened after his …
This paper presents the first results of a study conducted on subjective expectations that parents have about the costs and returns to education. This is done by using a detailed child-level dataset from the three villages of Dokur (Mahbubnagar district, Andhra Pradesh), Kalman and Shirapur (Sholapur district, Maharashtra). The perceived …
In the factors that affect income and poverty outcomes, there are some features unique to India. Caste, ethnicity, religion and even regional origins all influence income outcomes. Therefore while examining individual poverty, the influence of social belongings on the level and the nature of access to economic endowments and the …
The influence of John Locke’s theory of property on the policies governing India’s landscape is examined in this paper. Locke’s concept of wasteland, as opposed to value-producing land, constituted a founding binary opposition that constructed how landscapes were categorised. The period under study covers the Permanent Settlement (1793), the Ryotwari …
Maoist violence is the consequence of increased atrocities against scheduled castes and scheduled tribes (especially in the central tribal belt) and widespread tribal unrest due to commercialisation of forest resources. Ignoring such analysis and acting primarily on reports by the Intelligence Bureau, which is not equipped to study the multiple …
This report describes the findings of a rapid survey conducted by Centre for Environment and Food Security (CEFS) to evaluate the performance of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) in the 50 poorest dalit villages of Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. The rapid survey was conducted in …
This paper attempts a decomposition analysis of Poverty scenario in UP during 1993-94 and 2004-05. It was found that poverty has decreased but inequality has increased between these years. The main problems in the state are stark inter-region and intra-region differences. A positive observation is that the poorest region in …
This Report to the People on Employment provides a framework to understand the contemporary employment scenario. It focuses on key issues of generation of quality employment for the people seeking work. The issue of providing decent work, particularly to those who are excluded and marginalized in the labour market is …
FOUR months pregnant Lalita Devi coiled herself to escape the blows of heavy sticks. She was bewildered why each blow was directed at her belly. Men in khaki were ruthless till she fell unconscious. After five hours she found herself outside the Kone police station. “I was lying in a …
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 …
With the aim to understand, promote and highlight the importance of financial inclusion of Scheduled castes, Scheduled tribes and religious minorities, Sa-Dhan in collaboration with UNDP conducted an interface between government representatives, academicians, journalists, practitioners and other stakeholders. Dalits and religious minorities have faced social stigmatization throughout the history of …
