There is every sign that India is launching into a period of rapid urbanisation. In the next 30 years, an additional 350 million people will have to be accommodated in our existing towns as well as in brand new urban spaces. Given our inability to cater to even the existing urban population, there are serious concerns about our ability to deal with the influx. Are we entering a world of...

People of dalit communities in the Gadarwara sub-division of district Narsinghpur in Madhya Pradesh are on the brink of starvation as they are facing harassment, economic sanctions and social boycott because they have refused to remove animal carcasses. A fact finding team of civil society organisations says that dalits at many places have been ‘imprisoned’ in their own houses as all entry and exit points have been blocked by the...

Thirty years after an international treaty banning discrimination against women came into force, women and girls are still suffering from the scourge, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned today. “Violence against women and girls is found in all countries,” he told a session of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) marking the three decades of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). “The results...

CPI(M) demands immediate tabling of long-pending Bill to provide legal aid to victims Eradication of the dreaded disease one of the toughest challenges for mankind: Meira Kumar Taking up the cause of HIV/AIDS victims, members of the Lok Sabha on Tuesday pledged to re-dedicate themselves to creating awareness of the disease and taking Concrete steps to check and eventually eradicate it. On the occasion of World AIDS Day, Speaker Meira Kumar said eradication...

It was to be a somber memorial, a remembrance of those who perished in a lethal milky fog. To mark the 25th anniversary of the world's worst industrial disaster, authorities planned to open up the now-dilapidated shell of the Union Carbide fertilizer plant, where in the wee hours of December 3, 1984, 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas oozed out onto the sleeping city of Bhopal, India. About 4,000 people died instantly...