a solution along with a statistical guide that offers a quick overview typically the issues dealt with in the book revolve around poverty education agriculture health child labour water and sanitation among other socioeconomic problems the author dwells on the contradictory realties of the state where several wellmeaning programmes have been planned and even implemented to help the poor and the needy yet they remain deprived of any help drawing from the experiences she gathered from her travels to bangladesh thailand south africa and china she tries to build a framework to suit the indian context that would help in effective implementation of strategies to ensure they reach the targeted beneficiaries by way of her field notes as a civil servant the author not only goes into a contemplative mode over the nameless faces of need and how they can be better accommodated but also forces the readers to think just how fortunate they are to be able to enjoy four square meals everyday if nothing else the book will prick your conscience the next time you push a plate of food into the waste binabout the author sumita dawra is a 1991 batch indian administrative service officer from andhra pradesh state cadre india she currently heads the economic wing in the embassy of india beijing prior to her china posting sumita worked with the ministry of finance new delhi in the department of financial services at the state level she has served in the andhra pradesh districts of krishna east godavari west godavari warangal and karimnagar where she was collector and district magistrate from may 2001 to june 2004 sumita is an ma mphil in economics besides an mba from punjab university chandigarh she also completed a masters degree in public policy at the university of birmingham while on a oneyear sabbatical at uk 200506 her other publications include eradication of child labour convergence strategies 2007 a manual written for the international labour organisation besides several writeups published over the years on issues such as microcredit urban governance selfhelp groups and participative rural appraisal techniques she is one of a handful of bureaucrats who has penned down her experiences in the district thereby providing readers an insight into the reality and wicked issues of rural india and the frustration of feeling powerless to do much beyond a point