Human rights commission calls for collective efforts to provide healthcare, compensation to victims and kin The National Human Rights Commission has slammed the Centre and state governments for neglecting workers who are suffering from silicosis—an incurable lung disease caused due to inhalation of silica in dust. The reprimand is in the form of a note that followed the commission's fourth review meeting in New Delhi that concluded on May 4. Over...

-The Hindu Not possible to honour smart cards under present circumstances: Hospitals The Delhi Medical Association has expressed concern over what it called the “total failure” of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) initiated through the Delhi Government to provide free health care to persons belonging to the below poverty line by providing them an insurance of Rs. 30,000 which they could utilise in any hospital in the eventuality of ailment. “The scheme...

Alarmed by its proactive role, the three ‘pillars’ of our democracy set out to weaken the fourth estate Fundamentalisms do not necessarily announce their arrival by banging a hammer on our heads. Freedoms are often lost in little steps. The process creeps in quietly but insidiously. The path is often complex and defies a simple narrative. But here’s a straightforward fact: a concerted attempt is being made to censor, control...

Police investigation of Sanal Edamaraku for debunking a “miracle” at a church is a crime against the Constitution. Early in March, little drops of water began to drip from the feet of the statue of Jesus nailed to the cross on the church of Our Lady of Velankanni, down on to Mumbai's unlovely Irla Road. Hundreds began to flock to the church to collect the holy water in little plastic bottles,...

Dalits, OBCs in India’s colleges are using beef as a symbol of a resurgent identity     “Non-Brahmins have evidently undergone a revolution. From being beef-eaters to have become non-beef-eaters was indeed a revolution. But if non-Brahmins underwent one revolution, Brahmins had undergone two. They gave up beef-eating, which was one revolution. To have given up meat-eating altogether and become vegetarians was another revolution.”     —B.R. Ambedkar *** The Beef Menu     Available In Kerala,...