How NREGA helped Panihari village

Reading between poverty lines

Is the latest poverty estimate a true indicator of rural poor in India?  

Lost and found

Karnataka villages are reviving underground springs that were once their lifeline in summers

Blood, sweat and tears

For RTI activists of Bihar the cost of exposing corruption is life

Lean, mean scheme

Budget to start process of reforming Central rural schemes, 45 years after first demand

Bengal MGNREGA workers lost up to Rs 6,046 crore in wages during April-December 2022

 A study estimates that workers have lost income by 83%, compelling them to borrow money for survival 

NREGA needs a paradigm shift

Rajasthan tackles drought through pokhars

Is Union Budget 2021-22 MGNREGA allocation enough to alleviate rural distress

Number of person days to reduce to 2.7-2.8 billion person days for next year, says expert

The poorest shun MGNREGA

Participation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes in the scheme has halved in five years

How MGNREGA blew Rs 10,853 crore

The “little known” success story of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has unfolded as a disaster. …

Agents of change

Gramdoots, or village volunteers, mobilise people to get government machinery moving

Afforestation wages in cash

Chhattisgarh violates Supreme Court order

The swing

More women than men are voting in India. Majority of them are from rural areas

Giant snail invasion

People in Kerala village spend nights battling large snails that devour plants and nibble at walls  

Victim of its success

MGNREGA blamed for causing labour shortage; cut in budgetary support likely

Water turns the tide

A barren district of Rajasthan is seeing development, thanks to rains last year and flood in 2006

Sweet beris of Thar

Residents dig shallow wells to tap sweet water reserves

The poverty quibble

Government claims a huge drop in poverty numbers but critical indicators—health, malnutrition and wages—continue to be grim. So how …

The desperation of farmers

Food aid comes a cropper

Channels of change

Two villages in Uttar Pradesh have reversed the trend of migration by digging six kilometres of channels to bring water to drought-hit farms

Employment guarantee scheme not in sync with Mastapur's needs

Banks expand arms, but not through branches

Smart cards, biometric ATMs, mobile phones the new tools

Raghuvansh Prasad, minister for rural development, on NREGA