It’s been raining “rights” in Indian policy for the last few years — education, work, food, service, healthcare, and much else. This “Diet Coke” approach to poverty reduction — the sweetness without the calories — was always dangerous because of unknown side effects. Commenting in 1790 on the consequences of the French Revolution, Edmund Burke said: “They have found their punishment in their success. Laws overturned, tribunals subverted, industry without...

-The Times of India   The Union Cabinet on Thursday cleared setting up a national level social security fund for unorganized workers. The proposed National Social Security Fund will have an initial corpus of Rs 1,000 crore and will benefit 43.3 crore workers in the unorganized sector. Unorganized workers form the most significant part of total workers in the country and suffer from cycles of employment and absence of social security...

Ruth Manorama started her work with the urban poor in her youth; there has been no turning back ever since. She is the powerful voice of Dalit women today. Is it easy being a Dalit in India? And a woman at that? Have things changed for the better for the Dalits who constitute roughly 16.23 per cent of our population, since the Constitution of India “cast a special responsibility on the...

-The Indian Express   The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has justified the agitation by children against Posco's 12 million tonne steel project calling it "voluntary". "The children think that they are protecting the interest of their families which is contrary to the allegations that children are being coerced to participating the agitation. The anxiety / apprehension on account of the prospect of displacement and loss of the source of...

Over the last few decades thenon-party volunteer organisations have been much more effective in Indian public space and more articulate in policy debates than the traditional Left parties. This essay, while recognising the manifold achievements of these organisations, reflects on the serious limitations of the activities of the voluntary sector and argues that when they usurp certain roles they can become a threat to representative democracy. [Pranab Bardhan (bardhan@econ.berkeley.edu) is at...