Author Archives:
Are Projects For People, Or People For Projects?”
SEZs typically create a few thousand jobs for outsiders while displacing thousands more who are currently surviving on the land. Most SEZs will use the land’s resources to produce goods for outside markets which no locals can buy and which provide no value addition to their lives. A public hearing on the Mangalore Special Economic […]
Land Reform: More Problems Than Solutions
Land is the most contentious problem in India today. Although land policy development is taking place, the issue is being looked at in isolation, rather than in the overall framework of human rights.
The Unfairness Of Doing Good
Conservation is good, but is it always fair? It is indigenous and local fishing communities that are bearing the costs of marine protected areas. They are faced with denial of livelihoods, displacement from fishing grounds, arrest and harassment for asserting their rights to use coastal spaces and the sea as common property resources.
Eminent Domain, Absolute Doubt: Crusade For Goa’s Comunidades
Under Portuguese rule there were 223 comunidades, or independent village republics, in Goa. The people of each comunidade were absolute owners of its lands — from hilltops to coasts. A people’s movement is now challenging the Indian state’s right to walk in and exercise eminent domain powers and jurisdiction over these lands.
Five Years After SEZs: Chronicle Of Revenues Foregone
SEZs, touted as the silver bullet for India’s economic ambitions, appear to have lost their sheen as the Direct Tax Code threatens to withdraw the exemptions offered them. We have only just begun to realise how many thousands of crores of revenue have been foregone due to tax holidays granted to SEZs, says Manshi Asher, […]
MGNREGA Performs Poorly In Poverty-Stricken Orissa
The MGNREGS is particularly relevant in states such as Orissa, where different estimates put the number of poor at 48% to 84%. But while Rajasthan provided 74% of eligible families with work in 2009-10 and Andhra Pradesh 52.6%, Orissa provided work to only 24% of eligible families. No wonder there’s been a 116% increase in […]
How Government Agencies Fast-Tracked Lavasa
Lavasa, the picturesque planned hill station being developed by Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) near Pune, is facing charges of illegal land acquisition and environmental violations and construction has been stayed pending an inquiry. This article says that the focus should be not on the misdemeanours of the corporation but on the collusions and oversights of […]
Painful Facts
Over 7 million people in India suffer avoidable pain simply because they have no access to morphine, says a Human Rights Watch report on India’s obligation to ensure palliative care.
National Health Policy – 2002
The complete text of the National Health Policy
47% Of Children In India Are Underweight: UNICEF
Over half the world’s underweight children live in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, says a new Unicef report on the global progress on children’s issues. About 5.6 million children worldwide die every year for lack of adequate nutrients. Approximately 47% of India’s under-five population is underweight, according to ‘Progress for Children: A Report Card on Nutrition’, based […]