"Culmination of the IT revolution"

The tenet group has set up n-Logue, specifically to provide telecom and Internet services to the small towns and villages. Do you think this makes business sense? Interviewee:  Ashok Jhunjhunwala

<font class=UCASE><b>phulbani</b></font> <br> Access to poverty

Rabindra Nath Mishra, an additional block development officer, is a bit worried. He thought calculating Phulbani's poor, as directed by the Supreme Court, would be easy. The expenditure limit of Rs 250 per month (as the decisive line between poverty and prosperity) seemed a ridiculous amount. But when the final count came, he was shocked: 65 per cent of the district's population was below the poverty line. "I can't explain why there is so much poverty," he asks.

<font class=UCASE><b>dungarpur</b></font> <br> A 'common' death

when Bhuna Bhil of Pathara village in Dungarpur ran away from the communal carnage in Gujarat, he faced a dilemma: what would he do back in his village? It had already exhausted all his sources of livelihood.

<font class=UCASE><b>sarguja</b></font> <br> Losing battle

Poverty in Sarguja district has taken epic proportions. Unlike in the Mahabharat, the descendants of Pandavas and Kauravas have come together to fight a common enemy in Sarguja: poverty. And their fight is as heroic as the Mahabharat. Pandos, the local tribals and descendants of the Pandavas, are fighting for survival. For the descendant of the Kauravas, Korwas, it is a losing battle for water. Their adversary is the forest department.

<font class=UCASE><b>mandla</b></font> <br> Brimful of thirst

Irrigation is a luxury that only a few can afford in Mandla, a water-rich district in Madhya Pradesh. The district receives an annual rainfall of 1,300 mm, which can easily sustain three crops a year. But Mandla residents can barely manage one.

A natural secret

While the Union government is bothered about the high cost of storing surplus foodgrain, groundnut farmers in Anantapur commit suicide. Clearly, measures of poverty need changing. Policymakers must now take into account the time spent by women to collect firewood or water. This distance needs to be shortened as this distance keeps them away from their gross nature product (gnp).

Power to the people

Heads of panchayati raj institutions have aggressively set the government a deadline to amend the Indian constitution and implement changes that would forcibly impact and empower Village India. It would give villages control over natural resources like water, minor forest produce and minerals, which at present lies with the state government. The deadline expires on December 31, 2002.

Work for food

A petition by the People's Union for Civil Liberties (pucl) on employment guarantee has raised a crucial issue -- its link to rural livelihood and rural assets. The Maharashtra experience, to which the petition referred, is an important entitlement to employment, providing thereby food security.

On a weak limb

The lack of health infrastructure and malnutrition in India's rural regions has left the people vulnerable to a number of health problems. Children are the worst affected with life expectancy levels in some states dipping to a dangerous low. Wasting, a measure of child health, built upon the weight to height ratio of children, shows how undernourished children are.

Down the drain