International Day of Rural Women: It’s time we recognise their lives and livelihood

Rural women are active agents of socio-economic change. As we celebrate the day on October 15, there is a need to pull them out of the …

'Indian elections will always be unpredictable'

For 25 years, economist Ruchir Sharma has travelled the length and breadth of India analysing voting paterns, sociological landscapes and nuances …

MGNREGS: ‘Monument of failure’ or ‘saviour’?

On the 10th anniversary of the rural job guarantee scheme, Down To Earth evaluates its successes and drawbacks

Why this abandoned village is a threat to Uttarakhand

People are abandoning their villages despite high economic growth, leaving behind few, who find it difficult to continue farming without …

Life after hail

India’s poverty: There is no end to Surjit Bhalla’s imagination

The IMF executive director has just declared that India was nearly free of extreme poverty in 2020 and inequality was lowest in 40 years due to …

Migration should be out of choice, not a desperate last resort: FAO head

Large-scale cross-border movements in recent years have sparked tensions in some countries, placing migration high on the diplomatic agenda

Ideas India

The book celebrates bold enterprises of ordinary Indians

Job growth statistics conceal agrarian crisis

India needs the ‘Garibi Hatao’ slogan back

Anti-poverty programmes must be universal, not just on a below or above poverty line matrix

`Family farming is not a romantic idea. It is business'

The food price rise of 2007-08 highlighted that investments in the agriculture sector have reduced in the past three decades. One of the most …

BPL: a difficult line to draw

India heads to an unprecedented rural economic crisis

Fifth consecutive drought for 1/3 districts, dipping rural wages, El Nino threatening monsoon have squeezed livelihood options for over 500 …

Comanagement of natural resources Local learning for poverty education

Book COMANAGEMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES LOCAL LEARNING FOR POVERTY REDUCTION *by Stephen R Tyler* International Development Research Centre

New poverty estimate scrapped

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh orders for new methodology

Rural credit system is not working

Moneylenders are their bane

Budget 2023-24: Whither rural development? Allocation for livelihood and other schemes sees 14% cuts

Funds for central sector schemes and projects have been reduced to 113 crore from Rs 126 crore

Culture of random, centralised monitoring is killing the spirit of MGNREGA

We do not need systems that alienate people from work and give further control to bureaucracy and frontline functionaries who are responsible for …

COVID-19 impact: World will have 150 million ‘new extreme poor people’ in 2021

This is nearly twice the number of ‘new extreme poor’ estimated by the World Bank in April 2020

Eye-opening study on Punjab's rural women labourers poses many questions in poll season

High debts, sexual exploitation, gender disparity, caste discrimination and exclusion from the political process continue to bedevil these mostly …

Rural households have higher debt than urban counterparts: NSSO report

The debt in rural households is higher, even though their total assets are less than urban households  

Rise And Rise Of MFIs

Microfinance institutions entered big lending five years ago and registered 83 per cent growth

A complement, not a substitute

Cash transfer is effective only if basic services are in place

Janadesh 2007: Satyagraha for self-reliance, dignity

Grim reality of India's poverty dip