Dilip d'Souza: Warming hnds to remain undertrials forever
It's bad enough that you can pay bribes to officials who are very willing to take them; bad enough that ill-gotten gains are nearly a birthright today; bad enough that values are to laugh at. But...
View ArticleDilip d'Souza: Friday at the court, awaiting justice
What's the difference between hearing a case, and merely setting a date for hearing it? Dilip D'Souza isn't quite sure, after yet another day spent answering a court summons. Justice, he learns...
View ArticleUnorganised workers' wages minimised by the laws
Neither the protections of law nor interventions by the Supreme Court have ensured adequate minimum wages for the jobs performed by tens of millions of unorganised workers. Kathyayini Chamaraj reports...
View ArticleThere ain't no cure for same-sex love
If life for homosexuals is limited to choices between prayer, punishment or therapy, where's the good stuff? With support groups that offer homosexuals a space to express thoughts and feelings without...
View ArticleLegislation: STs Recognition of Forest Rights Bill
Who can live in forested areas? What rights to they have over lands they have lived in for generations? Can they be relocated, and if so on what terms? Legislation in Parliament attempts to balance...
View ArticleEditorial: A moral breach in the Narmada dams
As the demands for justice draw embarrassingly close to the PM, the decision to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam is being reviewed. But promises are nothing new, and officials have always...
View ArticleOpinion: Who speaks for Gujarat?
The violent assertiveness against Aamir Khan is part of a larger trend, marked by politicians who have instilled the language with idioms of aggression. But as they mobilise silence the 'other' voices...
View ArticleAt Tadadi, a familiar struggle against displacement
Disregard for local sentiment is now the norm in most large projects. At Tadadi, which has faced a long line of threats of displacement, the latest struggle is against a proposed 4000 MW plant. With...
View ArticleLowering depths, growing pangs, juggling poverty lines
The numbers are among the worst in the world. But instead of addressing the infinite nightmare of poverty, the Indian government appears to be doing away with the poor altogether by statistical...
View ArticleKalpana Sharma: Death of a 10-year-old
For her childish prank, domestic 'servant' Sonu was tortured, tied up and left to bleed to death. The police have rounded up her employers, but the story has not ended because it raises questions that...
View ArticleErecting a stop sign for human trafficking
Rescue operations carried out with tactful involvement of media and the police can offer victims protection from further trauma, and also begin to sensitise a number of people on the complex issues...
View ArticleWomen in the line of fire in Manipur
The rape of 21 women and girls has exposed deep-rooted ethnic divisions as well as fissures in Manipur's civil society. As every tribe has rushed to arm itself, women find themselves embattled between...
View ArticleCentre's child labour ban not good enough
The Centre's latest piece-meal approach to child labour is likely to be as ineffective as the previous failed schemes and plans. Unless the underlying causes of child labour are addressed, and the...
View ArticleBabies in the well, in Punjab
In the vicinity of a private hospital in Patiala district, a 30-ft-deep well yielded 50 dead foetuses, all female. The location of the well near the clinic was not accidental. For, clearly, despite...
View ArticleAt Polavaram, repeating a dammed history
Over 230,000 people in hundreds of villages to be displaced, tens of thousands of acres submerged, wildlife and forest lands inundated - the Polavaram project will repeat the great tragedy of...
View ArticleLess than half a voice
Among those whose livelihoods will be displaced by the Indira Sagar dam, women far outnumber men. But there is virtually no voice representing women's views, whether for or against the project, in all...
View ArticleMissing links in media coverage of child labour
Few of the reports that appeared in the press in the two-week survey period told readers anything they did not already know. Ammu Joseph surveys media reports of child labour as the Centre's widened...
View ArticleKalpana Sharma: Violence behind closed doors
We can now celebrate the fact that India is one of the few countries around the world that recognises that domestic violence is a violation of the human rights of women. The law alone is not enough,...
View ArticleNo end to the shameful practice of manual scavenging
Despite laws abolishing the inhuman practice of manual scavenging, over a million dalits in 'superpower India' are caught in a vortex of severe social and economic exploitation. Even the central...
View ArticleDrums of discontent at Ambikapur
On 10 December, World Human Rights Day, nearly 1000 citizens gathered in Ambikapur, the capital of Sarguja district, Chhatisgarh, for a satyagraha rally and mass demonstration. They addressed a...
View ArticleAn entitlement with no law
With the central government lobbing the ball into the states' court, the right to education bill has practically lost its very essence. Without a central legislation to support it, a constitutional...
View ArticlePolavaram: Not just a place to live
In Sriramagiri panchayat, a few Kondareddi settlements want nothing to do with the government's relief and rehabilitation package for those who would be displaced by the Polavaram dam. Fighting off...
View ArticleVillagers push for work benefits in Orissa
The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) is being implemented in Orissa in stops and starts. But by pressing for information on NREGA benefits using the sunshine law, citizens are able to...
View ArticleScuttling the law, officials evict tribals
Why did police use force and evict tribal villagers in Ghateha, M.P. on 19 April, when it was clear by all accounts that their land claims had not yet been legally settled by the state government, one...
View ArticleBook review: A weak look at judicial reforms
A trickle-down approach that sees justice through the lens of economic growth is the basis for many of its arguments, omissions and conclusions. As a result, it is of use mainly to practitioners of...
View ArticleTales of eviction in Bengal
Free Bird Productions, a Kolkata-based documentary unit that makes cultural, ethnographic and documentary films, has made two of the more noteworthy films about the recent events in Singur and...
View ArticleIn a democracy, State has no religion
Court decisions have lacked strong measures to penalise religious fundamentalism. On the contrary, as some decisions indicate, the judiciary seems to permit social ostracism, boycott of minorities and...
View ArticleClear the jails first
There are 250,000 people languishing in jails waiting for the courts to hear their cases. But far from facilitating the release of those who have been detained for years, the amendment to the Criminal...
View ArticleCrippling Lok Adalats
As the justice delivery system gets farther from the people, a serious attempt like the Lok Adalat to make justice accessible to a large chunk of the poor has been appropriated by powerful vested...
View ArticleLife sentences: How long is enough?
Compared to the death penalty, life imprisonment is considered less harsh. The courts have preferred to leave undefined exactly how long such punishment should be, and commutation pleas are considered...
View ArticleStarvation persists in Orissa
Several cases of starvation deaths have been reported in Orissa, especially in areas with high tribal populations. Added to this, government inaction in response to the crisis deepens people's woes....
View ArticleUttarakhand Gujjars being ousted without compensation
A large number of Ban Gujjar tribal families remaining within the Rajaji National Park are facing constant harassment from the state forest department. Their rehabilitation is mired in red tape....
View ArticleLivelihood crisis for Chakma, Hajong refugees
45 years after their settlement in Arunachal Pradesh, these refugees are still fighting for citizenship and livelihood rights. There is sustained opposition to their settlement, reports Ratna Bharali...
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