Although the article “Problematic Uses and Practices of Farm Ponds in Maharashtra” (EPW, 21 January 2017) by Eshwer Kale rightfully highlights pertinent issues regarding the policy of promoting farm ponds and the manner in which farmers are using these structures; the solutions espoused by the author and the Maharashtra government are devoid of expertise regarding technicalities related to terrain, geography and water-pumping technologies.
From adopting winnability as the core principle of nominating candidates to removing political appointees of the previous government, and in dealing with governments of opposition parties, the behaviour of the Bharatiya Janata Party has been so much like the Congress that the latter would rejoice in the assurance that there is no mukti from its ways and manners. The crucial difference between the BJP and other parties is that it is able to instil a sense of destiny not just among its rank and file but also the general public and convince it that the party is doing desh seva while others have been doing only politics.
This article examines evidence for poverty and deprivation amongst the Katkaris, a Scheduled Tribe, in hamlets in Jahwar and Mokhada talukas of Palghar district, Maharashtra. It analyses how Katkaris are trapped in a vicious cycle of social, educational, and economic backwardness.
An enquiry into the regional distribution of banking in Maharashtra comparing the rural and urban areas of the state and various divisions and districts dispels the commonly held notion that the state is a well-banked one. The aggregated indicators of banking development conceal the reality of an extremely wide divide in the distribution of banking between the urban and rural areas. This is essentially a reflection of the district-wise divide between Mumbai and the other districts, particularly those from central and eastern Maharashtra or Amravati, Nagpur and Aurangabad divisions, which have been identified in the literature as economically backward districts and have also been associated with a high incidence of agrarian distress in recent times. With a thrust on the policy of financial inclusion since 2005, there has been an increase in the number of bank branches in underbanked districts of the state. However, this increase has not helped in correcting the regional divide in bank credit and hence, most districts other than Mumbai continue to be significantly credit-deprived.
The hike in tax devolution to states by the Fourteenth Finance Commission to give a larger fiscal space to the states has meant sharp cuts for centrally-sponsored schemes. Studying the case of Maharashtra, it is found that without adequate norms and yardsticks of development expenditure, the state has failed to exploit its fiscal potentials.
The Maharashtra government's village forest rules seek to overturn the rights regime established in the letter of the law by the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act and the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 in terms of both community rights, as well as the rights over minor forest produce. Moreover, the rules write away the future rights of the community over forests and their management and control over minor forest produce in perpetuity. These are also ultra vires of the rules regime agreed and enacted by an act of Parliament.
Responses around the beef ban have focused on the anxiety of the liberal middle class which construed the ban as curbing its consumption choice. But absent from this was the voice of the Dalits, who have come to be defined by what they consume, and whose relationship with beef is marked by caste, poverty and hunger. An exploration of the practice of beef consumption through the prism of destitution, and its relation with the poor to whom it provides the bare minimum.
The growing protest against temples that deny access to menstruating women should also challenge the institutionalisation of faith and the mediating power of the priest.
