Prasanth at ‘The Daily Pheesh’ expresses skepticism (informed) at the eradication of diseases through GM (genetically modified) mosquitoes.
GM mosquitoes may be useful or harmful but one cannot deny that their introduction is nothing but a stopgap response to mistakes that were committed much earlier—failures in planning and managing cities, failures in taking health care to rural areas and [...]
Archive for the 'Poverty' Category
GM mosquitoes and ‘their’ policy making
Published by May 2nd, 2008 in Development, Economy, Environment, Government, Health, India, Policy and Poverty. 0 CommentsDignity, among other things
Published by April 21st, 2008 in Caste, Human Rights, Personal, Poverty and Prejudice. 0 CommentsJina asks whether reservation ensures dignity, and instances from her life leaves her with shades of grey. Nice read.
This, in one of the most evolved campuses known for its social conscience and moral fibre.I have heard sob stories from fellow management classmates [who happened to be belonging to a caste which offered him reservation] on [...]
The fallacy of school choice
Published by April 3rd, 2008 in Democracy, Education, Human Rights, Policy, Politics, Poverty and Theory. 0 CommentsDweep Chanana joins the debate on privatization of education and vouchers:
The argument for privatization is at once political and ideological. It is political because it reflects how societies feel about the role of the state in providing “public” services such as healthcare and education. It is ideological because proponents often supplement demands for privatization [...]
Science, State, Market, Society, Caste, Gender…
Published by April 1st, 2008 in Capitalism, Caste, Development, Economy, Policy, Poverty, Science & Technology and Society. 0 CommentsMelkote attends a talk titled ‘Science, State, Market, Society and Ecology’ and thinks: ‘the problem with science and technology in India seems to be that their main focus is either the State or the Market’.
The market angle is even more apparent: our best minds working to solve problems which will make sharper videos, clearer sound, [...]
S.R.Nair thinks not. Unless, it turns more inclusive:
Politicians and leaders use the word inclusivity, started originally by welfare economists such as Amartya Sen, as a mere lip service. In fact the inclusivity was never there, whether economically or socially. The dalits are dalits and the poor turn poorer with casteism continues to be at the [...]
Common School System
Published by March 31st, 2008 in Education, History, Human Rights, India, Policy, Politics and Poverty. 0 CommentsAnil Sadagopal advocates a Common School System:
The role of Common School System in forging a sense of common citizenship and nationhood is yet to be appreciated. This becomes a critical nation-building function in a geo-culturally diverse country like India. How can the present multi-layered school system fulfill this requirement? Today, the school system is like [...]
A walk down the Red Corridor
Published by March 30th, 2008 in Activism, Capitalism, Democracy, Development, Economy, Human Rights, India, Policy, Politics, Poverty and South Asia. 0 CommentsFire on the Mountain has been posting a series of in-depth interviews with revolutionaries from South Asia. The interviews, it appears, were conducted by the Norwegian Revolutionary Socialist party (Red!) for their party magazine. The first of the interviews, with G.N.Saibaba, Deputy Secretary of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (RDF), an All Indian Federation of [...]
Poverty is a political issue
Published by March 27th, 2008 in Adivasi, Caste, Dalit, Development, Economy, Human Rights, Policy, Politics, Poverty and Religion. 0 CommentsAnalysing a paper published in the Economic and Political Weekly, John Samuel suggests poverty isn’t just about incomes, it is also about identities :
The notion of impoverisation (or the process of the active creation of poverty with in society or economy) needs to be seen in the context of social, economic and political inequality. Such [...]
Now, the bill
Published by March 27th, 2008 in Economy, Government, Politics and Poverty. 0 CommentsGaurav Shukla emphasizing the need to link salaries to performance, calculates the bill:
The pay hike will bring about massive strain on the exchequer. With the implementation of the fifth pay commission’s recommendations, the central government’s wage bill shot up by nearly 99 per cent. The present recommendations, when implemented, are expected to cause an additional [...]
Elaben
Published by March 26th, 2008 in Activism, Business, Community, Poverty, Society and Women. 0 CommentsM.S.Sriram, in a long post, says it is an honour to know Ela Bhatt:
It has never been difficult to get through to Elaben. I do not know who her secretary is and when wanted her appointment, she herself would immediately respond on phone as to whether she was available at a particular day and [...]
Why is Modern India Vegetarian?
Published by March 24th, 2008 in Adivasi, Caste, Dalit, Economy, Food, Government, Policy, Poverty and Religion. 0 Comments41.9% of adults belonging to the ST and 38.4 % belonging to SCs have Chronic Energy Deficiency, while the pooled average of the nation is 34.8 %. Further, 62.7 % of the children born to Scheduled Caste parents are under-weight, 57.6 % are stunted, while among the other castes it the numbers are 53.1 % [...]
Doing business in Rural India
Published by March 21st, 2008 in Business, Economy and Poverty. 0 CommentsNitin Srivastava is doing a series of very informative posts on rural marketing titled ‘Perspectives on Retailing in India and Rural Marketing’. In the second post, he looks at some Emerging Trends from Rural India:
Employment: Non-farm activities in rural areas are witnessing a rise in entrepreneurship and employment, which are growing at a faster rate [...]
Naxalism and conventional politics
Published by March 18th, 2008 in Adivasi, Dalit, Democracy, Development, Government, Human Rights, Justice, Policy, Politics and Poverty. 0 CommentsGautam Sen says he doesn’t support Naxalism but he doesn’t seem to believe in the efficacy of ‘conventional politics’ either:
Despite these differences, my answer to my brother’s imprisonment is not the advocacy of violence. It is a waning and tenuous hope that perhaps the system does work, as Pai thinks it does. Perhaps my brother [...]
Anti-Charitable Contributions?
Published by March 12th, 2008 in History, India, Poverty and Society. 2 CommentsDid you know that in 1877 the British colonial government had passed an “Anti-Charitable Contributions Act”? I did not. Bala posts about this absurd piece of history that led to ten million deaths.
He has also unearthed large portions of the original text of the act. My favourite part, from Chapter IV which deals with examples of offences under [...]
Why the Rs. 60,000 crore Waiver is not a Sop
Published by March 3rd, 2008 in Economy, India and Poverty. 0 CommentsMadhukar rubbishes the claims that the Rs. 60,000 crores waiver to the small and marginal farmers in the 2008 budget is an electoral “sop”:
The highlight of the India’s Annual Budget yesterday was the waiver of Rs.60,000crore ($15bn approx) debt to the small and marginal farmers.Some hailed this as “revolutionary”, while others criticised this as a [...]
Another Betrayal of the Rural Poor?
Published by February 26th, 2008 in Caste, Dalit, Development, Economy, India and Poverty. 0 CommentsVB Rawat writes on the UPA’s flagship package for rural India, the NREGS, that seems to be floundering, as in this UP village.
Meanwhile, Rupchandrapur people are wondering whether they will be able to get their total amount or not. If for 14 days of work, an individual get Rs 400/- as per calculation of the [...]
Whither Prosperity?
Published by February 26th, 2008 in Democracy, Development, Economy, Education, Geopolitics, Globalisation, Government, India, Indiaspora, Policy, Poverty and South Asia. 1 CommentUnable to defend himself from a Singaporean hotelier’s comments, Swaroop seeks out answers at Churumuri. Illustrating with real examples, he rakes up enormous dirt on a gamut of issues.
Education. Immigration. Public Safety. Harassment. Rowdyism and brawn. Health services. Bribery. Brain drain.
He concludes his comparison of India to Singapore (unthinkable by size, but still) with an interesting analogy to claims [...]
Rural Poor- Human Rights, Inhuman State?
Published by February 22nd, 2008 in Adivasi, Business, Caste, Community, Culture, Dalit, Democracy, Development, Environment, Human Rights, India, Justice, Policy, Poverty and Spotlight Series. 7 Comments[ This is Essay # 18 in our Spotlight Series. Click here for the archives.]
Rural Poor- Human Rights, Inhuman State?
Theory and Practice in a Liberal Democracy
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Rahul Banerjee
Over the past two years or so the normally un-newsworthy rural poor in India have time and again made the headlines with their vehement opposition to the forced acquisition [...]
Meeting Baba Amte, on way from the Beatles to Bhils
Published by February 9th, 2008 in Activism, Development, Environment, Health, Human Rights, India and Poverty. 0 CommentsRahul Banerjee recalls his encounters with Baba Amte who passed away today:
The most poignant contradiction is that between my two fathers. While my biological father was dead against my decision to go into the wilds among the adivasis my sociological father Baba Amte not only lauded this decision, which as it happened duplicated his own [...]
‘Outsiders, insiders and others’
Published by February 7th, 2008 in Community, Culture, Development, Economy, India, Poverty and Prejudice. 0 CommentsHarini opines that the recent incidents of violence in Mumbai indicate that a ’simmering problem just boiled over’:
At the core is the fact that there is the ‘outsider’ - who doesn’t mind being the outsider - who is taking away jobs. Yesterday it was the blue collared job as the mill worker, today it is [...]
More on Thackeray
Published by February 6th, 2008 in Culture, India, Language, Politics, Poverty and Prejudice. 0 CommentsThackeray and the recent events in Mumbai seem to be on many bloggers’ minds- so, here are a few more posts on the issue:
Sahadevan isn’t happy with the inaction of the Maharashtra government either:
Some political parties have no good policy for people. They are befooling people, divide and rule what BJP and Congress have been [...]
Detoxing the rich and the poor
Published by February 6th, 2008 in Activism, Health, Poverty and Women. 0 CommentsShiban Ganju confronts the concerns of the ‘worried–well, who scurry to ‘detox’ their bodies’ and the ’scared sick, who fall prey to needless death’ and journeys from ‘twenty-first century neurosis to nineteenth century ignorance’.
Changing behavior is an uphill task – anywhere in the world. I have ranted against scams in health care; pleaded against colon [...]
One of the most surprising aspects of the slums in Mumbai is that its residents have lived in the “city” for generations and they are remarkably self-reliant. In contrast to the homeless in the USA, the “pavement dwellers” of Dharavi are exceptionally productive. Although multi-generation families live in humble apartments of less than 200sf, they [...]
Ananthakrishnan G deciphers a picture:
This picture of a mother and two children, one of them an infant (only the elder child is seen, in the foreground), is a portrait of the little people who keep falling through the net in one of the fastest growing economies on the planet. As commuters, many talking on their cellphones watched, [...]
Thela aur thel
Published by January 3rd, 2008 in India, Poverty, Prejudice and Spotlight Series. 12 Comments[This is essay #11 in our Spotllight Series. Click here for archives.]
Thela aur thel
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Annie Zaidi
The average tea-stall is not an overtly feminine space. The standard cup of tea at the average tea-stall is not my most beloved. But I’ve hung out at a few, anyway, and have learnt plenty in the [...]
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