-The Hindu The sense of impunity that drives discrimination against Dalits is at the heart of recent demands for the dilution, or even repeal, of the Act for prevention of atrocities against SCs and STs It is the sense of impunity nurtured by caste hierarchy that prepares the social ground for the “shockingly cruel and inhumane” crimes against Dalits called atrocities. It is this impunity that the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled...

-PTI Washington: Tiny northeastern state of Sikkim has the best working conditions for women, while national capital Delhi fared the lowest, according to a report. The report released by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a top American think-tank, and Nathan Associates, gave Sikkim the highest possible 40 points while Delhi received just 8.5. The states were ranked according to four primary factors -- legal restrictions on women’s working hours in...

-The Hindu If the data on juvenile crime are anything to go by, the annual reports of the National Crime Records Bureau cannot be taken at face value. The National Crime Records Bureau’s (NCRB) annual round-up of crime statistics has in recent years been the subject of extensive media coverage. The parsing of the official data, however, tends to be a superficial exercise, focussing on the big numbers instead of the minutiae. Numbers...

-The Hindu Police officials who have worked for years cracking cases related to the Bawariyas say their modus operandi is similar to this case. The Bulandshahr gang rape has once again turned the spotlight on the nomadic tribe of Bawariyas. The socio-economic history of the tribe reveals how their sustained alienation from the rest of the population forced generations to turn into criminals. The Bawariyas are natives of Rajasthan and have now spread...

-The Indian Express Share of Muslims in official 3.7 lakh ‘beggar’ population is disproportionately larger than the community’s share in country’s population, show Census data. Mumbai: Muslims make up 14.23% of India’s population. They are, however, nearly 25% of the 3.7 lakh individuals who have been listed as beggars by the Government of India. Activists claim that the data — released last month — on the religious orientation of those deemed ‘non workers’...