India gets Rs 20,000 crore worth of minor forest products (MFPs). This year, these can provide the much-needed cushion against massive job loss and tanking economy. The ongoing lockdown due to Covid-19 pandemic has cast a shadow on the trade of MFPs as well. While governments have allowed collection of MFPs from the forests, usual weekly markets (haats) are not functioning and traders are not allowed to move around, leaving little options for sale.
आलू जो कि बेल पर उगता है, चावल को पानी में भिगोने के बाद कच्चा खाया जा सकता है, दलिया (फटा गेंहू) प्राकृतिक रूप से मीठा होता है। यह सब सुनने में भले ही अटपटा लगे। लेकिन हमारे किसान सदियों से यह सब उगाते आ रहे हैं। इनके अलावा, ऐसी बहुत सी फसलें हैं जो कि खासतौर पर बीमारी से निजात पाने में मदद करती हैं और जिन्हें प्रतिकूल परिस्थितियों में उगाया जा सकता है। लाल चावल के बारे में आप क्या कहेंगे जिसे इसकी पौष्टिकता के चलते खासतौर पर गर्भवती महिलाओं के लिए पकाया जाता है? या धान जिसे सुंदरबन के खारे पानी में उगाया जा सकता है?
Irony runs its play every year in India as food grains rot in godowns while 23 crore people go hungry every day. GOI Monitor talks to food and trade policy analyst Devinder Sharma on the issues stalking agriculture and public distribution
In a free wheeling talk with GOI Monitor, food and trade policy expert Devinder Sharma favours income support for farmers, attacks FDI and indicates that there is a smear campaign going on against the civil society
In India, police are trained well, paid minimally, put to odd times and jobs. Yet they remain in a position of power over the rest of the citizens, which is then used to extract money, and other favours. Political control further aggravates the situation. This is why the need for reform of the police force was felt but the reforms were not really acted upon, and if done, it was merely a lip service. Devika Prasad, who works with police reforms programme of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, talks about the shortcomings
Q It is estimated that by 2050, 54 per cent of Indians will live in cities. But with such a high premium being placed on urban land, how are the cities going to host migrants, especially the poor?
Firstly, that estimate is probably incorrect. Already, as indicated by the 2011 Census, urban growth is slowing down - from 54 per cent in the 1970s to 32 per cent currently even though the Census has
Disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has been the biggest mystery of modern India running for almost seven decades and involving multiple international link ups, national political interests and mysticism. GOI Monitor talks to journalist-turned researcher Anuj Dhar who recently came up with his second book on Bose which tries to clear several doubts
Born to the families of teachers, Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl always wanted to 'change the world'. Moving from English literature to mainstream journalism to independent film making, the husband-wife duo has developed a valued understanding of India's development model and how it fails us. Their film, 'Cotton For My Shroud', which focussed on suicides by cotton farmers in Vidarbha, got recognition at the 59th National Film Awards. Here they talk about their motivations, urban-rural divide, GM food and why we need to question the constructs foisted on us.
पर्यावरण मंत्रालय जल्द ही जी. एम. सरसों को मंज़ूरी दे सकता है। मंत्रालय की जेनेटिक इंजीनियरिंग स्वीकृति समिति ने 11 मई 2017 को दिल्ली विश्वविद्यालय द्वारा विकसित जी. एम. सरसों के बीज, डी. एम. एच. 11, के व्यावसायिक उपयोग की सिफारिश की थी। यदि पर्यावरण मंत्रालय इसे स्वकृति देता है तो डी. एम. एच. 11 भारत की पहली जेनेटिकली मॉडिफाइड (जी. एम) खाद्य फसल बन जाएगी। आलोचकों का सबसे बड़ा आरोप है कि परीक्षणों से संबंधित वैज्ञानिक डेटा को अभी तक गुप्त रखा गया है। जी. एम. सरसों से जुड़े बायोसेफ्टी परिणामों को जनता के बीच लाना चाहिए। सरसों सत्याग्रह के प्रोफेसर राजिंदर चौधरी बताते हैं कि इस निर्णय के खिलाफ लड़ना महत्वपूर्ण क्यों है।
The impact of climate crisis on people across the world is highly disproportionate but no other group is as vulnerable as children in low income families of developing countries. Children are not emotionally and physically capable of understanding the dangers during extreme weather events and are dependent on adults for their survival. They are more susceptible to water and vector borne diseases, malnutrition and they are forced into labour due to economic challenges induced by climate crisis.
It is difficult to make small talk with a woman who has lost her all. Khair-un-Nissa had generously invited me to her home for a meal, a curry made of the famously succulent Black Haringhata hen, no less. The curry was special but it was her house that impressed me most. The bamboo and straw structure boasted a fresh coat of clay. The area was so scrupulously tidy that I felt refreshed the minute I entered the courtyard. Normally, I would be gushing with compliments; in this case a compliment would be tactless.
Surekha Gaikwad is a high school graduate. She started picking waste along with her mother-in-law after getting married. Till five years back, she would not even bother to dress up as the day would be spent at a hot and filthy garbage bin. “Even if I had a bath in the morning, by midday I was stinking. So I never bothered to stay clean,” she says. But now Surekha wears a nice fresh sari to work, with a rose in her hair. She leads a team of eight waste pickers
BJP-led goverment came up with PM-Kisan scheme to provide Rs 6,000 annual income support to small farmers while Congress party is promising Rs 72,000 for poor families through NYAY scheme. How will these help deal with consistent farm crisis and where will the money come from? How the new government can deal with indebtedness of farmers, loan waivers. Is there a way to implement market reforms that will ensure that farmers get the minimum support price for their crops? Food and trade policy expert Devinder Sharma talks in details about these aspects, chalking out a roadmap for the next government.
As the world debates about the post-Covid economic model, farming is regaining its status as the most viable, decentralised livelihood generator. Right policies can ensure that it not only revives the economy but also acts as a carbon sink and neutralises pollution. As the biggest nature-based occupation that gives a bounty with little investment, agriculture also has the capacity to employ a large number of people. It can revive the village economy with greater possibility of equitable development
Hardikar uses his two-decade experience of reporting on rural affairs to connect the everyday life of Ramrao to policy decisions, workings of market economy and climate crisis. Every year, an insidious new factor is added to the list of old reasons compounding the problem of the peasantry. Liberalisation, loan waivers, unchecked sale of spurious agro chemicals, demonetisation, pest attacks, all leave a mark on Ramrao who is also battling personal losses.
Millions of migrants began a journey on foot or cycle to reach their home states safely with no food or water supplies, dealing with hunger, starvation, and exhaustion. Many even lost their lives while trying to make this journey. Data compiled by various individuals and agencies have painted a grim picture. According to the data provided by Thejesh GN, the lockdown has resulted in the death of 884 migrants as of 26 June 2020. Those who managed to reach their home states were again meted with inhumane treatment.
It is an accident of history that tobacco became a legal product. It would be a fallacy to assume that a product which kills half its consumers was given a legal status by way of logic. When in the beginning of 19th century, tobacco was commercially used for the first
Thousands of years have passed, and a woman’s existence is still verified by that of a male in her life. We’ve all heard of the famous saying – “Behind ever successful man is a woman”, and people often say it in passing without realising its significance.
Across the world, rapid development restricted to few growth centres has induced a major change in land use. Forests and traditional set up have given way to farm houses, orchards, plantations, industries and residential societies. On January 28, 2011, the Supreme Court gave much needed judicial recognition to the importance of ‘Commons’. Commons can be understood as a community’s natural resources such as forests, wastelands, and water resources, where every member has access and usage facility with specified obligations. A policy review draws key lessons from the SC’s directions and steps taken up by state administrations to comply.
Somewhere between Alipur and Narela Sub City lies the village of Holambi Kalan. Around 47 km from Delhi's showpiece Connaught Place, this village was chosen for the relocation of families from JJ ( (short for jhhugi, jhompri) clusters on Minto Road and R.K. Puram, two of the most prime areas of the capital.