Sitamarhi's lost children
This northern most district of Bihar, bordering Nepal, has hordes
of dalit hindu and muslim children working at hotels and restaurants in
violation of a statutory order prohibiting such work. Everything from
education policy, to law enforcement, to rehabilitation has been messed up, finds
Rahul Ramagundam.
Caste conflict hurting schooling for dalits
In a number of dalit settlements in Gaya, Bihar, there are school
structures but no teachers. In some places, where there are both,
as in Parariya village, the dominant Yadavs make intrusive and insulting remarks
that do not provide a facilitating environment.
Rahul Ramagundam
reports.
Criminals as leaders -- yet again?
Elections in Bihar move into the final phase today. Polling began on 18 October with the first of four phases.
For a total of 243 seats in the State Assembly, 1607 candidates have been in the running. Of these, 446 candidates
(nearly 2 competitors per seat) have criminal records.
Varupi Jain
reports.
The cost of eradicating polio
For seven years women and children of the rural districts of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have
been deprived of essential health services so that the polio eradication campaign could go on.
On World Health Day,
Abhijit Das
points out that this need not be.
Once upon a Sankranti
Half a century of harvests ago, the plans to control the flooding of the Kosi river got underway. The lives of those
who live within its embankments have never been the same again; successive governments have failed them, and the
practices that brought them such misery have remained firmly in place, notes
Dinesh Mishra.
Women's force for peace
Although most members of the Mahila Shanti Sena are illiterate labourers, they are very aware of the strength of thier
force, and the importance of their role in society.
Alka Arya
reports on a women's movement that is tackling complex social and economic questions with a deep conviction for peace.
Harvesting flood relief
Rather than rouse themselves to respond when floods strike,
state governments seize the opportunity to play
financial games with the Centre, says
Dinesh Mishra.
Bhoodan betrayal in Bihar
The lofty aim of land re-distribution to the poor
fell short for a number of reasons, but the most cruel of them
is that the state failed to play its role.
Videh Upadhyay
urges change, even at this late hour.
Thirty-four years of irregularities and failures
The recently released CAG audit report on Maharashtra has heavily criticized the time and cost overruns in Gosikhurd irrigation project in Vidarbha. Himanshu Upadhyaya analyses the report to list the shortcomings of the project.
Lessons for rural electrification from a weaving village
If electrification drives remain focused only on village electrification, connections and lighting, 'Gaaon Ka Vikaas Garv Ke Saath' will remain just rhetoric. Anjali Sharma, Ann Josey, and Sreekumar N report.
On the waterfront in Mumbai
Mumbai’s port land should be redeveloped to benefit, among others, the dock workers and slum dwellers, says a recently released report by city based NGOs Youth for Unity and Voluntary Action (YUVA) and Hamara Shehar Vikas Niyojan Abhiyaan. Darryl D’Monte analyses the report.
The catch regarding Mumbai’s fishing villages
Fishing villages in Mumbai are probably more threatened than those in other cities, due to the dizzy densification of the country’s commercial capital, writes Darryl D’Monte.
Why Fadnavis mustn't be soft on motorists
Sachin Tendulkar’s letter to the Maharashtra CM Fadnavis, urging him to reduce toll posts in the state, may just encourage the state further to execute its plan of exempting private cars and SUVs from such charges. Darryl D’Monte argues why that is entirely unjustifiable.
Who will benefit from the ‘Manhattanisation’ of Mumbai?
The Mumbai municipal authorities have delivered a draft 20-year development plan for the city, but implementation of many of the proposals therein could well deliver the final blow to a city already gasping for breath, says Darryl D’Monte.
Pursuing development: The perils of the beaten track
The report of the Kelkar Committee on balanced development in Maharashtra has important recommendations. But will it all come to nought because of its failure to avoid some conventional pitfalls? Shripad Dharmadhikary explores.
Will passengers have to bear the burden of Mumbai Metro?
Even before the first line of the much-anticipated Mumbai Metro becomes functional, a number of issues have cropped up, most notably one over the pricing of tickets. Darryl D’Monte tracks the arguments, with comparisons to metro rail elsewhere.
Moulding the young as change agents
While formal education on climate change is largely structured around doctrines and laws targeted at mature minds, some have realised the importance of building awareness and inspiring action among the younger brigade.Angelica Pereira reports from Mumbai.
Travelling afar for solutions nearby
The plan to erect 12 dams in order to meet the water requirements of cities in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region is not only objectionable from an
environmental perspective, but also undermines the priorities laid out by the 12th Five Year Plan.
Shripad Dharmadhikary
reports.
Spaced out in Mumbai
India's commercial capital suffers from a deplorable lack of open spaces and falls far below both national and global standards in that respect.
Clearly, the BMC is not tuned in to the requirements, as
Darryl D'Monte
shows in his report on the draft development plan for the city.
Helping Pardhi children aim for the sun
While state atrocities against Pardhi communities show few signs of abatement, a small school in Mahadev Basti in Usmanabad, Maharashtra brings a
ray of hope.
Shirish Khare
reports.
A new fast-yielding jackfruit
Jackfruit from the farm of Maharashtra's Prakash Sawanth yielded fruit in a record two years, an unheard of agricultural phenomenon in the
country.
Shrikrishna D
reports on the many specialities of the new variety.
Cutting sugar: The bitter reality
Thousands of landless villagers in Maharashtra's Marathwada region are forced to take up sugarcane harvesting for lack of better livelihood
alternatives.
Shirish Khare
visits the region and uncovers the rampant exploitation and hardships for workers that these contracts entail.
Mumbai fights the towers that trouble
As studies continue to highlight the potential health hazards posed by cell phones, Mumbai citizens are seen demanding stricter regulation and
removal of cell phone towers from sensitive areas, but authorities respond with half-baked measures.
Darryl D'Monte
reports.
'Maha' problems over minor irrigation
A tragic accident at the Chinchave Minor Irrigation Project in Maharashtra brings into focus long-simmering questions over the quality of
minor irrigation works as well as the nexus between engineers and contractors.
Parineeta Dandekar
takes a look.
Pune civic ward sets an example
The Zero Garbage pilot project in Pune's Katraj ward illustrates the critical elements of a successful and sustainable waste management initiative in the Indian context.
Ayrel Clark-Proffitt, Saroj Badgujar, Sunil Agarwal
explain how.
Justice eludes Mumbai's homeless
Displaced by the flawed implementation of Slum Rehabilitation Authority's policy and an unholy nexus of real-estate mafia, thousands of slum-dwellers continue to fight for their basic right to shelter.
Swati Priya
reports from Mumbai.
A village with 60 millionaires!
Once impoverished and drought-prone, Hiware Bazar in Maharashtra is a shining example of how a visionary leader can use good governance to make degraded areas resource-rich and transform the future of its people through empowerment and inspiration.
Ramesh Menon
reports.
Bhama Askhed Dam: Just another pawn
A dam that was sanctioned upon its claims of being able to irrigate 30,000 hectares in a semi-arid area of Maharashtra does not even have canals 18 years after initiation, but spawns industrial development! Findings by
Parineeta Dandekar
typify the issues of many large dams in the state.
Drought in Maharashtra: The real story
The fact that the state's most drought-prone regions have continued to devote precious resources for highly water-intensive sugarcane
cultivation and sugar production indicates that there is more to the region's water crisis than climatic conditions alone.
Parineeta Dandekar
analyses.
White Paper, or whitewash?
Maharashtra's politics is in uproar, as the dubious record of the irrigation department provides fodder for a proxy NCP-Congress war.
The issues, however, demand real attention, writes
Shripad Dharmadhikary.
One state, but divergent demands
Integrated river management is a serious business, and without proper attention can lead to politically difficult situations even
within a single state, as seen in Maharashtra this year.
Parineeta Dandekar
reports.
Not your land anymore
Adivasis in the Thane region face official as well as illegal efforts to separate them from their lands, which are
increasingly in demand to meet growing urban needs.
Freny Manecksha
reports.
It's not fun anymore
Tamasha, a traditional dance form in Maharashtra for ages, is now dying. Audiences have new preferences, fashioned
more by Bollywood than tradition.
Ramesh Menon
reports.
Maharashtra secretly amends RTI Rules
The State has quietly pushed through a set of changes to the way it treats RTI applications. Activists discovered it quite accidentally, and
are shocked.
Krishnaraj Rao
writes.
Small farms, big worries
Small rain-fed farms are crucial to agriculture turning around. Will India tackle this structural problem?
Jaideep Hardikar
has more.
Renaming Nakusa
Girl children who were given names that reflected their unwanted status are being renamed in Maharashtra, in a new initiative to
reverse the decline in sex ratio.
Freny Manecksha
reports.
Pie in the planning sky
In a city of vast homelessness, can economic growth in the services sector alone lift millions out of poverty? Mumbai's new vision of the future
pitches for reclamation and densification, but not jobs and livelihoods.
Darryl D'Monte
reports.
Who is illegal?
Residents in a Golibar slum find that they have very little recourse to the law to defend themselves from being forcibly displaced.
The real violator is the builder, they say.
Freny Manecksha
reports.
Nuking dissent over Jaitapur
NPCIL and the political establishment are burying their heads in the sand over the controversial nuclear plants on the Konkan coast,
which will affect the lives of people in the entire region.
Darryl D'Monte
reports.
'We don't sell our mother'
There has been substantial resistance to the Jaitapur Nuclear Power Park being set up in Konkan region of Maharashtra, in Ratnagiri district. The political consensus for nuclear power has once against brushed aside legitimate local concerns, writes
Surekha Sule.
Food security, by definition
In the 1960s,
Maharashtra ended famine forever by passing an Act that deleted the word 'famine' from all laws of the State. It's an idea
that is still in fashion, writes
P Sainath.
Vidarbha farmers get market-savvy with hi-tech solution
Reuters Market Light, a professional content service, has been changing the way Vidarbha farmers make decisions on sowing, selling farm produce, and other important matters and increase their profits.
Jaideep Hardikar
reports.
Planning for Mumbai
If you hire consultants who are not familiar with the local terrain, they are apt to provide solutions which do not conform
with the situation on the ground. Mumbai's latest self-vision exercise bears this out, writes
Darryl D'Monte.
Bombay HC sets aside dubious circular
Once an offence is disclosed under the Prevention of Corruption Act, then the police must investigate, rules the court, and any government circular that
interferes with this must be ignored.
Krishnaraj Rao
reports.
Cost-effective technology stalled by Pune government
In Pune, bureaucratic meddling and lack of vision are threatening a simple, cost-effective eco-technology which treats heavily polluted water and turns messed-up water bodies into clean ones, reports
Surekha Sule.
Adding the fourth R
The Acorn Foundation India Trust aims to organise ragpickers and train them in scientific methods of waste handling, segregation and recycling, bringing a
measure of respect to their work.
Freny Manecksha
reports.
A new home, but in a nala!
Shakuntala Pawra knew that her home would be submerged by the backwaters of the Narmada dam, so she accepted the government's offer of resettlement.
Except, she is drowning there too.
Neeta Deshpande
reports.
It is shameful to misguide people
Well-known PR firms, professional designers, and ad agencies served the richer parties and candidates. They made up 'news' items in the standard fonts
and sizes of the desired newspapers and even 'customised' the items to make them seem exclusive in different publications.
P Sainath
reports.
Mass media: masses of money?
The same exclusive report, with different bylines, in three rival dailies. Swathes of advertising dolled up as news stories. Is 'paid news' getting
institutionalised, asks
P Sainath.
The "era of Ashok" - a new era for 'news'?
The huge mismatch between the Chief Minister's stated accounts and the dozens of full pages of 'news' will surely re-stoke the debate
over what has now come to be called 'paid news,' writes
P Sainath.