New Delhi: Rickshaw-pullers, rag pickers, sanitation workers and taxi drivers are among a host of unorganised sector workers who have been brought under the ambit of the national health insurance scheme in a decision taken by the union cabinet Tuesday.
The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) would be extended to rickshaw-pullers, rag pickers, mine workers, sanitation workers and autorickshaw drivers and taxi drivers. At total of 13.68 lakh rickshaw-pullers, 11.63 lakh rag pickers, 17.79 lakh mine workers, 10.08 lakh sanitation workers and 35.39 lakh autorickshaw drivers would be covered under the scheme, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the cabinet meeting here.
The total financial implications for extension of the RSBY to rickshaw-pullers, rag pickers, mine workers, sanitation workers and autorickshaw drivers and taxi drivers, would be around Rs 210 crore for the year 2013-14 and Rs.419.89 crore from 2014-15 onwards.
The RSBY is being implemented in 28 states/union territories and more than 3.44 crore smart cards have been issued as on March 31. The target for the year 2013-14 is to cover 3.60 crore below poverty line families....
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10:17 PM, Jun 04, 2013
New Delhi: In a shocking revelation about the pathetic condition of catering services in Indian Railways, CNN-IBN has accessed a railways report that exposes how food is prepared in filthy conditions. The report says that the food served in trains is cooked in dirty, smelly and waterlogged pantry cars. This stands true even for premier express trains. The report says that cockroaches were all around the GT Express pantry car....
06:22 PM, Apr 12, 2013
Khamhariya Damuan: A 13-year-old is acting as a catalyst of change not just for his home, but for the entire village community in Uttar Pradesh. Omkar Dubey took up the issue of sanitation forcing his village heads to set up public toilets. More than 70 per cent Indian homes have no access to a toilet. India has more cellphones than toilets. More than half a million children in India die...
10:58 AM, Apr 11, 2013
After the official Water and Sanitation Management Organisation (WASMO) portal stated that 7675 habitations suffer from high ground water fluoride levels, the organisation's chairman called it a "goof-up" and said that less than 400 habitations are affected. The official WASMO portal states that a recent habitation survey found that 7675 habitations suffer from high levels of ground water fluoride, nitrate and groundwater salinity. ...
11:04 PM, Mar 17, 2013
Over three crore devotees led by ascetics of Hindu sects on Sunday took a holy dip at Sangam on 'Mauni Amavasya', considered the most auspicious day of bathing during the 12-yearly Kumbh congregation in Allahabad. ...
06:27 PM, Feb 10, 2013
It's the beginning of a new tradition at the ghats of the Ganga. Around 100 manual scavengers from Rajasthan are taking a dip in its holy waters, washing away centuries of discrimination. Among them is 35-year-old Usha Chomar. As she offers her prayers to the mighty river, she says she was at first hesitant to come here. "On my way here, I was a bit hesitant, a bit embarrassed. I...
08:24 AM, Feb 10, 2013
Despite the Delhi High Court's order directing the government to build one shelter per one lakh population, the capital still has only 150 temporary and permanent shelters that can house a mere 7500 homeless people of the city. With over three lakh homeless people in Delhi, the existing shelters are not only inadequate, they are also in poor conditions. ...
09:28 AM, Jan 05, 2013
The alleged punishment of cleaning of toilets meted out to primary school children in Odisha's Kendrapara district last year has come under the scanner of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), official sources said. The NHRC has issued summons against the Commissioner-cum-secretary of schools and mass education department a week ago ordering personal appearance before it on January 11. ...
02:03 PM, Dec 23, 2012
Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh on Saturday stirred a controversy for reportedly comparing toilets to temples. Saying that toilets were far more important than temples, he proceeded to comment upon the poor hygiene levels in the latter. While the BJP has slammed Ramesh, the Congress too has distanced itself from the comments. ...
08:58 AM, Oct 07, 2012
Mumbai: More than 1,600 children under the age of five die daily in India due to diarrhoea caused by lack of sanitation, a report revealed on Friday. 'Squatting Rights', a research by philanthropic foundation Dasra, said that every year 30 per cent of marginalised women who travel long distances to access public facilities were physically and sexually assaulted. "In Delhi slums, upto 70 per cent of girls experience humiliation every...
01:58 AM, Sep 29, 2012
Mumbai: The familiar 1.2-km long nullah flowing underneath railway tracks on the Bandra-Khar stretch of the Western Railway network is making MP Priya Dutt see red. And shes not alone in her fury. Every monsoon, the shallow nullah 24-25, which has its final outfall in the Chamdavadi nullah, routinely inundates the railway tracks, disrupting train services and the lives of thousands of train commuters. This 1.2-km long nullah is about...
04:55 PM, Aug 28, 2012
Kolkata: Kolkata is reeling under an outbreak of dengue, two people have died and many are flooding hospitals and clinics for treatment. While doctors work round the clock, the government seems to be doing little to contain the disease. 24 year old Abhay Pratap Yadav, a migrant skilled worker from Uttar Pradesh, was admitted to a nursing home in Kolkata last week with high fever and a splitting head ache....
07:19 AM, Aug 28, 2012
New Delhi: Defence Minister AK Antony on Thursday outrightly rejected Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh's pitch for a share from the national security allocation for social development programmes. "Money provided in the budget for the Defence is for national security," Antony said promising at the same time all necessary support to Rural Development Ministry by providing it technology from his ministry. Ramesh had earlier said that the total amount of...
10:55 AM, Jul 27, 2012
New Delhi: Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has called the railway the world's biggest open toilet. He was making a pitch for greater funding for bio-toilets. "We are the world's capital for open defacations. 60 per cent of all open defacations in the world are in India. This is a matter of great shame," Ramesh said. "The second dimension of the sanitation problems in India is the Railway, which is...
09:30 AM, Jul 27, 2012
Chennai: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has written to Union Rural Development, Drinking Water and Sanitation Minister Jairam Ramesh, demanding that funds be made available to Tamil Nadu immediately, under the National Rural Drinking Water Programme (NRDWP). She pointed out that Ramesh had promised that the funds for the project would be made available by June 5, but that was yet to materialise. Jayalalithaa recalled the praise that the...
12:08 PM, Jul 16, 2012
Madurai: Fighting the social stigma and isolation, they toiled to earn a living. They ignored illness to support their family, to raise their kids. But things took a shocking turn for 21 HIV positive women, who were working as sanitation workers in the Government Rajaji Hospital, were kicked out for reasons unknown. While government and social organisations are spending crores to campaign against discrimination of HIV positive patients, these hapless...
12:23 PM, Jul 06, 2012
New Delhi: First it was Vidya Balan and now it is Bill Gates who has come forward to extend support to Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh's sanitation drive. Gates, who has supported India's battle against polio, will now help alter behavioural patterns connected with sanitation. Talking to reporters after the meeting, Ramesh said, "We discussed how the Gates Foundation can support us in bringing behavioural changes along the lines of...
10:19 PM, May 30, 2012
Award winning actor of 'The Dirty Picture', Vidya Balan, will now play a role to alter the real dirty picture on the ground in India. She has accepted Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh's offer to become the brand ambassador in his campaign for improving sanitation. Manual scavenging is the worst face of India's shocking story on sanitation and Vidya has an enormous challenge on her hands - that of...
12:14 PM, May 05, 2012
New Delhi: Vidya Balan, who on Thursday received the Best Actress National Film Award for her role in 'The Dirty Picture', is the new brand ambassador for the sanitation drive launched by Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh. "I can't remember when was the last time I did anything without conviction," said Balan, when asked if she was convinced about the cause. With manual scavenging still a reality and...
09:17 PM, May 03, 2012
Greek philosopher Socrates once said, "It is not living that matters, but living rightly." As the clock is inching towards the 2015 deadline of the ...
09:12 AM, May 03, 2012
