Socio Research & Reform Foundation

Delegates from various countries adopted a historic resolution by casting their votes aiming to improve working conditions of the domestic workers worldwide. International Labour Organization (ILO) adopted ‘The Convention on Domestic Workers (2011)’ on 17th June 2011 at the 100th annual convention held in Geneva.

Abuses against domestic workers majority of whom are women and girl child are common in many parts of the world, until now we lacked strong measures to stop them. All countries including India are in process to ratify this treaty which states domestic workers must have reasonable working hours, weekly rest, right to join trade unions and collective bargaining, regulation of recruitment agencies by government etc.

The new standards also say that states must grant domestic workers the same protections as any other worker, including decent working conditions. They can no longer be considered as second-class workers. India’s National Advisory Council and the Centre had recently recommended including domestic workers as part of social security schemes like health insurance. This shall improve the socio-economic status of our domestic workers.

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Socio Research & Reform Foundation
(A Non Government Organisation)
512 A, Deepshikha, 8 Rajendra Place, New Delhi – 110008
Tele/Fax: +91-11-25821088, 25817157, 25722044
e-mail: socio-research@sma.net.in

Revenue Dept. has clarified that no service tax is applicable on grants / donations rec’d by charitable organizations for the purposes of training, as long as it can be established that there is no direct relationship between the recipient of training and the donor.

A circular has been issued by the department in this regard.

Copy of the circular has been posted on the site http://www.srr-foundation.org/news/STcircular.pdf

__________________________________
Socio Research & Reform Foundation
(A Non Government Organisation)
512 A, Deepshikha, 8 Rajendra Place, New Delhi – 110008
Tele/Fax: +91-11-25821088, 25817157, 25722044
e-mail: socio-research@sma.net.in
website: www.srr-foundation.org

For most cities in India, 24×7 water supply remains a dream. Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development & Finance Corporation has successfully experimented with such a water supply scheme in Hubli-Dharwad, Gulbarga & Belgaum. Now the corporation is further experimenting involving a private water distributor in Mysore targeting to reach out to more than 1.74 lakh persons. Major features of the experiment include:

1. Project awarded to a private agency with expertise in water sector.
2. One of the principles was that efficient water service coupled with an effective system of collection would ensure willingness among people to pay.
3. Even when there is sufficient water in the system compared to demand however large scale leakage of water means low pressure. For example, in Mysore while water pumped is 185 million litres per day (MLD) and with demand of 120 MLD, there should be 65 MLD surplus in the system. This would be sufficient to maintain pressure in the system.
4. Obviously one of the key features of the scheme is to stop leakage in distribution system.
5. BPL in Dharwad were charged a fixed amount of Rs 48/- per month. Considering many of the poor where even women are daily wage workers, this amount was willingly as they did not have to wait to loose there wages waiting for storage of water.

Note
The above post was sent with incorrect heading (Reforming Public Distribution System) earlier, hence being re-posted.
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Socio Research & Reform Foundation
(A Non Government Organisation)
512 A, Deepshikha, 8 Rajendra Place, New Delhi – 110008
Tele/Fax: +91-11-25821088, 25817157, 25722044
e-mail: socio-research@sma.net.in

India is likely to achieve a much improved agriculture production in most cereals compared to last year as per an announcement by Agriculture Minister. Although bumper record for rice and overall food grain production is still retained for the year 2008-09.

Note:  Highlighted figure indicate the record till FY 2009-10.

However the major bottleneck of foodgrain storage capacity, as highlighted last year by a PIL filed in Supreme Court, still continues. Present storage capacity is 42 MT. FCI had targeted to create additional storage capacity for 16 MT, however so far it has been able to firm up plans for 2.5 MT of storage only. Thus the spectre of wastage of large amount of foodgrain continues.

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Socio Research & Reform Foundation
(A Non Government Organisation)
512 A, Deepshikha, 8 Rajendra Place, New Delhi – 110008
Tele/Fax: +91-11-25821088, 25817157, 25722044
e-mail: socio-research@sma.net.in

In an innovation to collect data directly and immediately from the schools on status of the Mid-day meal schemes for each of the state’s 1.5 lakh schools, UP has come out with an innovative monitoring system. On a daily basis a phone call is rec’d on the mobile of the teacher responsible for the mid-day meal, he is asked to punch in the number of students served with the meal, if the teacher punches zero (in case no mid-day meal was served), the teacher is asked to punch any of the 4 numbers (1) if the cook was not available, (2) if the raw-material was not available for cooking, (3) transportation problem (where food is being cooked elsewhere using cluster approach, and (4) any other reason.

Phone call is being made using a software through voice-mail and responses are immediately recorded and displayed on the UP Mid-day Meal Authority web-site, using a ‘cloud telephony’ technology. This provides the authority to opportunity to intervene immediately, if no meals are being served at a particular school. Earlier the Authority could intervene at the earliest only after a few weeks when the Gram Pradhan’s report is received by the Authority.

The experiment of the UP Govt. has been commended by the central Govt. and several states have elicited interest in the replication, as it provides immediate data to the authorities who wish to take immediate corrective action. However the problem of Gram Pradhan and teacher colluding still continues and the UP authority is looking how to overcome such situations.

________________________________

Socio Research & Reform Foundation
(A Non Government Organisation)
512 A, Deepshikha, 8 Rajendra Place, New Delhi – 110008
Tele/Fax: +91-11-25821088, 25817157, 25722044
e-mail: socio-research@sma.net.in