Poverty & Hunger

28.04.2006 Nearly 2,000 people marched on Friday in the heart of Delhi to protest against government policies causing displacement of people all over India. They later submitted a memorandum to President APJ Abdul Kalam seeking stoppage of construction work on the Narmada dam till people are rehabilitated and making a national law that prevents displacement of people without rehabilitation.

27.04.2006 More than a dozen civil society organisations gave a call on Thursday to support the ongoing Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) agitation and ensure that millions of Indians getting uprooted due to development – construction of dams, digging of mines and setting up of industries – are given their rights by the government.

25.04.2006 Indian NGO Navdanya has said that the package announced by the Indian government to prevent farmers's suicides - that seeks to increase the flow of credit into rural areas - will only lead to more frustration and suicides among farmers. Navdanya's assumption is based on the fact that capital intensive agriculture is pushing farmers into debt and suicides.

24.04.2006 The north east Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh has brought out its first human development report (HDR) which finds that the state has a unique opportunity to map out a people-centred development path that is sustainable and ecologically sound. Lack of community-based development in Arunachal Pradesh has resulted in slow progress on human development indicators.

20.04.2006 The major thrust of the Indian government's long-term economic package is to arrest farmers' suicides through farm credit, crop, farmer and cattle insurance, improving irrigation facilities and production in the four southern states that have witnessed the highest number of suicides.

20.04.2006 Even though the Indian government plans to introduce reservations in the private sector for the dalits - the historically oppressed sections in the Indian society - the dalits themselves are not very enthused. Most dalit leaders feel that Indian politicians pay lip service to the cause of dalit upliftment and it is high time that the corporates contributed to the social well being of the deprived communities.

18.04.2006 Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed to four of the six demands of the Bhopal gas victims after which the activists called off their international hunger strike. The demands that have been met include cleaning up toxic wastes, setting up a national commission for medical and economic rehabilitation and providing clean water.

17.04.2006 Nine poultry farmers have committed suicide across India because of the bird flu scare. It is believed that nearly 70 per cent poultry farmers in India are in dire straits as demand for chicken and related products has gone down considerably.

13.04.2006 A new report from GRAIN looks at the power politics behind the bird flu, the global response to it and its consequences for the poor. The GRAIN report finds that the agencies of the UN at the forefront of the international response to the virus, both WHO and FAO, are pursuing top-down strategies for wiping out bird flu that in turn are wiping out the foundations for long term, pro-poor solutions in the process.

12.04.2006 A number of schemes, including skill-based training, are being devised in rural areas to help around 260 million people living below the poverty line come above that by 2012.

10.04.2006 Survivors of the Bhopal gas tragedy recently marched over 800 kms from Bhopal to Delhi to meet the Indian Prime Minister who refused to grant them an appointment. Their demands include clean drinking water, removal of toxic wastes from the site which are polluting the environment and an investigation into police accesses on the demonstrators. Read Amnesty International's letter.

10.04.2006 The three-member ministerial delegation - Minister for Water Resources Saif-ud-din Soz, Minister for Social Justice Meira Kumar and Minister in the Prime Minster's Office Prithviraj Chauhan - that went to the Narmada Valley to investigate the rehabilitation of people were greeted by protestors at many places. The team also collected first-hand information rehabilitation and resettlement of people.

07.04.2006 The agitation by Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar got a fillip, two days after she was forcibly hospitalised by the Indian government, with students unions, academics and other organisations joining protests and many people launching a hunger strike. Rahul Kumar speaks to the new protestors.

03.04.2006 The indefinite fast by activists of the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA), including Medha Patkar, has continued for the fifth day. People from the western and central Indian states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh have been on a protest in New Delhi over lack of resettlement of nearly 35,000 families. The NBA wants the union government to intervene in what is calls cases of corruption and violation of Supreme Court orders.