The Keen Girl

The ministry of youth affair and sports was established in 2000, prior to which it was the department of sports. This is an indication of the importance given to sports in the early decade of independence when the country was still grappling with issues like poverty and communal riots. The ministry is bifurcated in department of youth and the department of sports; however the promotion of sports was the primary responsibility of national sports federation (NSA). This responsibility of sports promotion has been taken up by the government in the recent Khelo India campaign, which aims at reviving the sports culture in India. Reasons for lack of sports culture in India are attributed to the mindset of parents and of schools, lack of support by the government in regard of funds, lack of sportsmanship and the limited media coverage given to sports.  HT reported that a Chinese media outlet says that India lags behind in sports due to poor infrastructure, poor health, ...

Waste management in Delhi has become a huge problem over the years. With a population of 18.6 million in 2016 ( World Population Review) , the waste produced in the city is 14,000 metric tonnes daily. The Delhi Municipal Corporation, however, has not been able to tackle this enormous amount of waste in any way near to efficiency. The five local bodies of the DMC should have a landfill site each of their own, but such sites have not been approved by the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC). The government website of the DPCC last updated its annual report in 2014, the status of consent and authorizations of different municipal plants give information only till 2012. Here we get a glimpse of the extent of digital India. There are four landfill sites in Delhi, in Ghazipur, Okhla, and Bhalswa, and Narela-Bawana, of which only the last mentioned still has storage capacity left ( Hindustan Times ). The Ghazipur landfill site was fully saturated in ...

India was called “British India” for almost a 100 years, from 1858 till 1947. Certainly there have been developments in India in the past 70 years; it is undeniable that there are remnants of the British legacy still found in corners of Indian streets. From the khaki colour of the Indian police uniform, to becoming the second largest English speaking nation in the world ( BBC ), though the attribute for this is the exploding Indian population, vestiges of the British Raj can still be found in the people here. The above speculations gain ground when we observe the Indian Constitution and the Indian Penal Code, which still have many laws that came into being during the British Raj, to help the crown gain more and more control over the people. 1. Section 377 - This law states, in informal words, that oral or anal sex is a criminal offense in India . Now this law is open to interpretations, and many a times, magistrates wrongly interpret it as criminalizing homosexuality. This ar...

In all the hot debate over rapes and crimes against women in India, we should remember that just after Nirbhaya case in December 2012, a special 3-member commission was set up to recommend amendments to the Criminal Law so as to provide for quicker trial and enhanced punishment for criminals accused of committing sexual assault against women, which can today be googled by the tags “ Verma Commission ”. The commission took the liberty to suggest amendments in the Representation of People’s act 1951 . Let’s analyze what has been done about it 5 years down the line. Suggestion No. 1 was to "eliminate" those representatives with criminal antecedents. however, 34% of MP’s elected in 2014 had criminal charges against them, 21% had serious criminal cases ( ibtimes ). 30% of candidates in the Bihar elections had criminal cases against them, ( TheHindu ). The most recent study by Association of Democratic Reforms (19 April, 2018) has stated that 1580 MP’s/MLA’s have crim...

This post is about Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act 2005 (MGNREGA), which aims at providing 100 days of guaranteed employment to anyone who applies for jobs. How successful has it been? First let’s see what the government official website for NREGA states. Dividing person-days generated per year with the total number of individuals who worked, average days of employment provided per individual was 30.8 days in 2017, 30.72 days in 2016, 32.54 days in 2015, and only 26.72 days in 2014. The NDA led government came into power in 2014 and the Hon’able Prime Minister himself stated that NREGA will only act as a souvenir to the failure of UPA Govt, in 2016.   Average days of employment provided per household was 45.71 in 2017, 46 in 2016, 48.85 in 2015 and 40.17 in 2014, stated explicitly on the website. One household in India has on an average 4.45 people. Apparently, this is the new meaning of 100 days of guaranteed employment. NREGA workers acro...