-The Times of India India's official unemployment rate last year was 3.8%, data released recently by the Labour Bureau shows, but, as always, averages hide many stories. A closer look at the numbers shows that unemployment rises with education level to 10% among graduates, and higher still for backward castes. The Chandigarh-based Labour Bureau under the union ministry of labour and employment released the 'Employment and Unemployment Survey 2012' last week. The...

-The Hindu In what apparently points to new caste and social tensions in the Samajwadi Party-ruled Uttar Pradesh, Dalits have been prevented from performing puja in temples by persons belonging to other castes in Bareilly and Chandauli districts in the past couple of days. Though the police claim that normalcy has been restored, a case has been registered on the complaint of a Dalit in Bareilly. According to a senior police officer,...

To replace ‘Dalit’ with ‘SC’, as the Thorat panel recommends, is to be inaccurate A commission led by S.K. Thorat, and charged with reviewing NCERT political science textbooks in the wake of the cartoon controversy, has singled out a specific word in the text for removal. All instances of the word “Dalit”, it is recommended, should be replaced with “Scheduled Caste” (SC). The blogosphere is rife with speculation on the motivation...

-The Telegraph The Centre is planning to hold a comprehensive workshop for tribal women in Jharkhand to make them more alert to the menace of human trafficking, the decision mirroring its concern over the rise in number of such victims from the state. Krishna Tirath, Union minister of women and child development who met Jharkhand Women’s Commission member Vasavi Kiro in Delhi today, said the workshop would be held sometime in August-September...

-The Times of India India's official unemployment rate was 3.8% for the last year and higher for urban than rural areas according to statistics released by the Labour Bureau on Tuesday. Goa, Kerala Bihar and West Bengal were among the states with high unemployment while Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Punjab were among the states with low unemployment. The 'Second Annual Employment and Unemployment Survey 2011-12', conducted by the Union Ministry of Labour...