A report by a parliamentary standing committee entrusted to examine the National Food Security Bill, 2011 has revived the debate on what measures India must take to end its abysmal track record of hunger and malnutrition, (See several links given below) despite successive years of high growth and record grain procurement. The draft legislation is likely to be debated in the upcoming session of Parliament, even as the recent Jaipur...

-The Indian Express From amendments to the controversial Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act and criminal laws dealing with sexual violence against women to immediate steps to check trafficking of women and children, the three-member Justice J S Verma Committee Wednesday presented a detailed roadmap of steps the Centre and states should take to prevent sexual crimes against women. The panel, however, left the maximum penalty in rape cases to life imprisonment but...

-The Hindu Business Line A leap backward, says Right to Food Campaign Food rights activists, including National Advisory Council member, Aruna Roy, have called upon all Members of Parliament and political parties to reject the Parliamentary Standing Committee’s recommendations on the National Food Security Bill. Tearing into the Standing Committee’s report, submitted to the Lok Sabha Speaker on January 17, the Right to Food Campaign (RFC), an umbrella of civil society organisations, said...

-The Times of India In keeping with the public outrage over Nirbhaya's gang rape, the Justice J S Verma Committee has raised the bar of punishment for a wide range of existing and proposed sexual offences even as it rejected the demand for introducing death for rape. The report, released on Wednesday, has proposed codification of a stringent alternative to the life sentence, evolved through judicial activism in the last five years....

-NDTV A week after the Parliamentary panel submitted its recommendations on the Food Security Bill, the suggestions have come in for sharp criticism from the country's watchdog for child rights. The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) says the report has completely ignored the category of children, who are among the most vulnerable groups in the area of food security. Under the recommendations, children under the age of two...