By Paula Meth* South Africa is known around the world for its significant housing programme, and India has made substantial efforts to develop its cities. Providing free or affordable housing brings obvious benefits to residents who have lived in desperately poor conditions with no water, electricity or sanitation, in precarious informal structures. But research in … More Affordable housing proves life-changing for the urban poor, but poses unexpected risks for women

By Azera Parveen Rahman* Drought in Kutch has hit the pastoral communities hard, resulting in one of the highest rates of migration in the last three decades. Among livestock owners, while cattle and buffalo owners have got government help through subsidised fodder, sheep, goat and camel owners have got no such relief. Kutch district administration … More In drought-hit Kutch nomadic communities owning goats, sheep, camels are bereft of any relief

Excerpts from the report “Enhancing Capabilities, Empowering Lives – CSR in Skills and Livelihood: What are India’s top companies up to?” published by Samhita, and supported by Ambula Cement Foundation, DHLF, Godrej, and UNDP: With India at the forefront of a ‘demographic dividend’, it is essential for the country to capitalise on the advantage of … More Only six companies out of 90 spent over 50% of their CSR budget on skill, livelihood development

By S Menezes, TM Thomas* In recent years, there has been a myriad shift in the history of humankind, namely the rapid ageing of the earth’s population. Aging is a universal process and no human being can escape from this. In the last few years, a majority of the older adults seem to contemplate on … More Issues of elder security and well- being are becoming a matter of increasing concern in India

By Debmalya Nandy* The payments of wages in MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) are done through   the Aadhaar Payments Bridge (APB) using the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) systems. The section 7 of the Aadhaar Act has been applied to MGNREGA which enables the central government and the state governments to establish the identity … More Aadhaar-based payments through the fragile rural banking system adding to workers’ sufferings

Excerpt from the chapter “Impact on Agriculture, Trade, and Livelihoods” in “Violent Cow Protection in India: Vigilante Groups Attack Minorities”, a 104 page Human Rights Watch report, released recently: The cow protection movement is hurting farmers and herders, and impacting their right to a livelihood. M.L. Parihar, a Rajasthan-based author and expert on animal husbandry, … More Dalit, Muslim livelihood disproportionately affected by attacks in the name of cow protection

By Sheshu Babu* Though the trend towards ‘nuclear’ families, where the family unit is mainly parents and children, is increasing, there are indications of increase in families which are neither nuclear nor joint. These may be called ‘broken extended ‘ families. Over half of India’s households have been recorded as nuclear families since 1990s. Joint … More Broken extended households may be 4% of the total, but these have grown by 180%  in a decade