The Gandhian movement Ekta Parishad plans to organise a march for land rights in October 2012 in India, aiming to gather around 100,000 indigenous people, dalits and poor peasants. Support is shaping up around the world, at events such as an international mobilisation conference in Geneva Sep. 12-13. "In India, a large number of adivasi (indigenous people) are pushed out of their land because of mining, huge dams, wildlife protection, industrialisation...

On August 27, Parliament should have passed a resolution on the Lokpal issue in the established manner. The so-called ‘Sense of the House' resolution was a perplexing move. After the failure of discussions between members of a committee comprising Union Ministers and the civil society team, Anna Hazare declared on July 29, 2011 that if the government did not act on the Jan Lokpal Bill drafted by the team by August...

Moving forward on the contention that reproductive right is also a human right, the civil society organisations in this backward district are contributing in their own little way to improve the reproductive and child health care. The Rogi Kalyan Samiti, as mandated under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), of the District Hospital here has taken up several initiatives to provide better facilities to the patients particularly for pregnant women. ``In...

The activists said houses of members of the Standing Committee who oppose the Jan Lokpal Bill would be gheraoed. Taking the Jan Lokpal agitation further, Team Anna will now undertake a referendum and yatras to ensure that the people are aware of their elected representatives' performance and their stand on the Jan Lokpal Bill. These steps will ensure that the people hold the MPs accountable, Team Anna's core committee members said at...

-The Economic Times   Development and land rights are the new weapons in the government's war against Naxals. To forge an effective response, the rural development ministry is consulting the collectors of the 60 Left-wing extremism (LWE)-affected districts at a day-long meeting in the Capital on Tuesday. In the past, development programmes have failed to take into account the ground realities in these districts. This has contributed to ineffective programme implementation in these...