SEVERAL indicators that measure the quality of life of children and women show a marked variance when Gujarat is compared to Kerala. This gives a snapshot of the difference between the ‘Gujarat Model’ and Kerala’s people oriented path of development.EDUCATION: Gujarat has a Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) of 96 per cent at the primary stage, slightly lower than Kerala’s 100 per cent and the India average of 103 per cent. But, by the secondary stage (class 9-10), GER drops to 77 per cent in Gujarat while it is still very high in Kerala at 97 per cent.

CONDEMNING the centre’s lethargy in implementing the prime minister’s assurances given to the farmer organisations led by the Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) even after a year, it called upon its units across the country to take out rallies in states on November 26 -- the day the historic peasant movement was started on the outskirts of Delhi two years ago -- and present memorandum on their various demands to governors for forwarding it to the president.Accordingly, the SKM Tamil Nadu organised a massive rally on November 26 in Chennai to present a memorandum to the governor of Tamil Nadu and t

PREDICTABLY the authoritarian Trinamool Congress government came down heavily on working and retired state government employees as well as school teachers when they tried to peacefully march towards the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on November 23 demanding payment of pending 35 per cent Dearness Allowance (DA) arrears. Many of them were lathi-charged and received blows from the police and bled. The most shameful was the fact that the police personnel, especially the ‘civic’ (casual or ad hoc appointee) police, did not spare even women and aged pensioners.

THE second conference of Mid-Day Meal Workers’ Federation of India (MDMWFI), held from November 4-5, at Ranjana Nirula Nagar, Mallu Swarjyam Manch, in Hyderabad, Telangana, called for intensifying the struggle for basic rights of the mid-day meal workers of the country. The conference, held after a gap of seven years due to the pandemic, resolved to hold protests throughout India on December  11, 2022, demanding minimum wages and pensions for the workers who are now paid only Rs1,000 per month, that too only for ten months.  It is also resolved that the federation would oppose the efforts o

A COW belonging to a farmer, Jaidev of Matani village in Haryana's Bhiwani district , bordering Rajasthan died of Lumpy skin disease. The death of Jaidev's cow caused him not only a loss of Rs 45 to 50 thousand ( tentative price of that cow giving 16 litres milk per day) but also around Rs 10 thousand spent on its unsuccessful treatment . His second cow was also infected with Lumpy . Though it survived, but there was a reduction in  milk production. Mahavir of village Gullarpur in Karnal district of Haryana lost a cow with 9-10 litre milk per day causing the family tremendous distress .