-Hindustan Times The whole society is culpable in Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s death but the focus should also be on why the media can be held responsible for this heart-wrenching case of suicide. Vemula wished to reach the stars and dreamt of becoming a Carl Sagan but became yet another victim of institutionalised discrimination based on caste. His death has turned into a livewire, sparking unseen levels of protest across India from...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Citing 85 major incidents of alleged persecution of Christians across 20 states last year, a report by a minority and human rights NGO says 2015 saw an unprecedented spike in "intolerance" against the community. The report says on an average India saw one such incident of hate crime against Christians a day last year. While the report terms Madhya Pradesh as the worst state, followed by...

Representatives of around 20 civil society organizations and NGOs met the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley as part of pre-budget consultation on social sector on 12 January, 2016. Immediately after the pre-budget consultation, a press conference was held by some of these organizations to convey the media persons what demands/ suggestions were made.   Subrat Das, Executive Director of Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA, http://www.cbgaindia.org/) informed us that during...

-The Hindu Several instances of in-kind transfers being successfully implemented. Social sector groups want Finance Minister to review the implementation of alternative subsidy systems before going ahead with Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). “There have been several instances of in-kind transfers being successfully implemented in various parts of the country. Our appeal to the Finance Minister was to look at all the successful examples of alternative schemes before the government pushes ahead with the...

-The Indian Express The juvenile justice bill, to be debated by the Rajya Sabha today, confuses revenge with justice Our Parliament is on the verge of committing a heinous crime against its youngest citizens as it discusses the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Bill, 2014 in the Rajya Sabha today. If it passes this bill, it would be placing a sword of Damocles over every Indian born after 1997, including...