Rural Areas

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    Towards transparency: How institutionalising social audits can increase efficiency of rural welfare programmes in India

Towards transparency: How institutionalising social audits can increase efficiency of rural welfare programmes in India

Social audits are a powerful tool to monitor government-run schemes and organisations. By looking at Andhra Pradesh’s monitoring of rural employment welfare programmes, Ayesha Pattnaik argues how they can provide greater transparency and effectiveness for the implementation of key government policies.

India’s Right to Information (RTI) movement was launched in 2005, when civil society activists and citizens protested in rural areas of Rajasthan […]

January 16th, 2019|Development, Rural Areas|Comments Off on Towards transparency: How institutionalising social audits can increase efficiency of rural welfare programmes in India|
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    Book Review: Broken Ladder: The Paradox and Potential of India’s One Bilion by Anirudh Krishna

Book Review: Broken Ladder: The Paradox and Potential of India’s One Bilion by Anirudh Krishna

 In Broken Ladder: The Paradox and Potential of India’s One Billion, Anirudh Krishna offers a ‘worms eye’ view of development, arguing for policy that is attuned to local locations. Whilst gender and state-based differences could be explored further in relation to the problems of development in India, Krishna provides insight into the challenges of contemporary Indian development, Sohini Kar finds. 

Broken Ladder: The Paradox […]

September 10th, 2018|Book Reviews, Development, Featured, Rural Areas, Urban India|Comments Off on Book Review: Broken Ladder: The Paradox and Potential of India’s One Bilion by Anirudh Krishna|
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Book Review: Widows of Vidarbha: Making of Shadows

In Widows of Vidarbha: Making of Shadows, Kota Neelima makes an admirable attempt at shedding light on the wives of the farmers who have committed suicide during India’s ongoing agrarian crisis. However, Neelima falls short at portraying the women as productive workers wielding their own agency, instead drawing on a reductivist framework, primarily focusing on their widowhood, Sumedha Pal […]

August 30th, 2018|Agriculture, Book Reviews, Featured, Rural Areas|Comments Off on Book Review: Widows of Vidarbha: Making of Shadows|
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  • Permalink Young girls carry pots of water in Shoba Mahar, a tiny Indian village from a distant water source on April 30, 2009. Many millions of India’s children are forced to spend much of their day on carrying water instead of going to school. Most wells in this village have already run dry due to the prolonged drought in the region. Villagers lost more than half of their livestock this year. The entire village boycotted the last elections blaming all political parties for failing to solve their drinking water problems. Most parents already refuse to marry their children to the village boys because of the acute water shortage. India's entire Bundelkhand region is dependent on the monsoon rain for irrigation, both directly and indirectly. You don't need to read the recent studies to realize that the population is severely malnourished. In addition to some of the obvious reasons, such as inadequate irrigation facilities, scanty rainfall and persistent drought situation, the practice of agriculture has changed largely due to shifts in the cropping patterns that are profit driven and by governmental agricultural policies as well. Water shortages have become acute. Hunger and malnutrition are reaching extreme limits. Cattle have perished in the thousands due to hunger and thirst. Several hunger related deaths and distress-related suicides have occured in vast rural areas.Gallery

    “I think we need to be more humble and recognise that we don’t know what the solutions are” – Professor Anirudh Krishna

“I think we need to be more humble and recognise that we don’t know what the solutions are” – Professor Anirudh Krishna

Preceding a workshop organised by the LSE South Asia Centre to discuss the findings of his new book The Broken Ladder: The Paradox and the Potential of India’s One Billion with students and faculty, Professor Anirudh Krishna spoke with Rebecca Bowers about the growing need to address India’s inequality by implementing ground-level solutions.  

RB: How would you say that Broken Ladder builds […]

August 29th, 2018|Development, Featured, Interviews, Rural Areas, Urban India|1 Comment|
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    Alleviating rural poverty through alternative means of livelihood development

Alleviating rural poverty through alternative means of livelihood development

Drawing on data from Balochistan, Asmat Kakar and Ghulam Rasool Baloch argue that the new provincial government is well placed to further implement ongoing community driven programmes, with the potential to extend this kind of intervention to all districts.  

The poorest of the poor are the landless in rural areas, followed closely by the land-poor – those whose landholdings are too […]

August 9th, 2018|Development, Featured, Rural Areas|Comments Off on Alleviating rural poverty through alternative means of livelihood development|
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Broken Ladder: Anirudh Krishna workshop report

Professor Anirudh Krishna joined academics and students at the London School of Economics in a workshop organised by LSE South Asia Centre. The workshop, examining key themes of Krishna’s latest book Broken Ladder: The Paradox and Potential of India’s One Billion, provided a platform to exchange ideas on potential solutions and strategies to address the mass poverty experienced by […]

July 27th, 2018|Development, Economy, Education, Events, Featured, Rural Areas, Urban India|Comments Off on Broken Ladder: Anirudh Krishna workshop report|
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    Maternal and newborn health in Pakistan: risks, challenges, and the way forward

Maternal and newborn health in Pakistan: risks, challenges, and the way forward

Pakistan’s health indicators reflect a poor state of mother and child health, writes Dr Nadia Agha, who argues that rural women’s health crises must be addressed to ensure a liveable environment for new mothers and their babies. 

Babies in developed countries particularly those from Japan, Iceland and Singapore have the greatest chances of survival due to strong education, health and welfare […]

July 9th, 2018|Development, Rural Areas|1 Comment|
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    Has the west been won? Understanding the legal and political implications of the FATA-KPK merger

Has the west been won? Understanding the legal and political implications of the FATA-KPK merger

The President of Pakistan, Mamnoon Hussain, recently signed the 31st Constitutional Amendment Bill into law, giving a green light to the merger between Pakistan’s Federal Administered Tribal Area (FATA) and its Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province (KPK). Whilst this has been hailed as a democratic victory, Amber Darr examines the complex legal and political implications of this enactment. 

On 31st May 2018, the President of […]

June 11th, 2018|Featured, History, Law, Politics, Religion, Rural Areas, Security and Foreign Policy|Comments Off on Has the west been won? Understanding the legal and political implications of the FATA-KPK merger|
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    Developing the rural economy in Pakistan through income generating grants

Developing the rural economy in Pakistan through income generating grants

There is great wealth to be gained by coordinating rural development focused initiatives that contribute to sustainable means of livelihood. Rural livelihoods can be improved through active participation of rural communities in the organisation of their own economic and social goals by harnessing the intrinsic potential of the rural poor, writes Asmat Kakar.

Sustainable rural development is at the centre […]

May 21st, 2018|Development, Featured, Rural Areas, Sustainable Development Goals|Comments Off on Developing the rural economy in Pakistan through income generating grants|
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  • Permalink https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Agriculture_main.jpg Meera'rah (CC BY-SA 4.0Gallery

    Using blockchain to make land registry more reliable in India

Using blockchain to make land registry more reliable in India

Blockchain allows people to trace in almost real time each transaction in the process of selling a property, write Alexandru Oprunenco and Chami Akmeemana

The word blockchain often conjures up thoughts of cryptocurrencies, of people dabbling in a seemingly dark art, making tens of millions of dollars. Blockchain was first linked to the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, but it is a technology […]

May 18th, 2018|Cities and Urban Studies, Development, Economy, Featured, Rural Areas, Technology|Comments Off on Using blockchain to make land registry more reliable in India|
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