-The Indian Express Linking it to ration cards ends up denying poor their rightful entitlements In September 2017, 11-year-old Santoshi, resident of Simdega district of Jharkhand, succumbed to starvation. According to her mother, she died “asking for rice, but there was not a single grain at home”. She was deprived of her subsidised ration as her family’s ration card was cancelled because it was not linked to Aadhaar. Marandi in Jharkhand met...

-ThePrint.in While the US exemplifies the effect of discriminatory enforcement in an unequal society, a weak state and low conviction rates in India are complicit in the failure to stem the violence against marginalised groups. It is virtually an axiom in development circles to say that the rule of law is necessary for a country’s economic development and advancing accountability and justice. Proponents of the former emphasise the importance of rule of...

-The Hindu Low conviction rates and a lack of a lawful definition of crime mark criminal administration in India Police reform in India has been concerned with political interference ever since the landmark Supreme Court judgement, in 2006, on the subject. The focus should really be on reorganising criminal administration. The annual publication of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), “Crime in India 2016”, which was released recently, presents a dismal picture of...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A last opportunity for untrained elementary school teachers to retain their jobs has put the spotlight on private schools. Most of the million-plus such teachers across the country teach in private institutes. Bengal too has come under unwelcome glare: it has 1.3 lakh untrained teachers, second only to Bihar, according to human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar. The dubious statistics came to light after the National Institute of Open...

-TheWire.in Eleven years after order, none of the states have conformed to the guidelines, says a Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative report. New Delhi: Eleven years ago, on this day, the Supreme Court had issued directions to the Centre and state governments to transform their police forces into professional, accountable and efficient service units. However, a recent report shows that compliance remains far from satisfactory with none of the governments enacting laws to...