Rudyard Kipling opens his superb novel with the street urchin Kim teasing the son of a wealthy man. Kim kicks Chota Lal, whose father, Lala Dinanath, is worth half-a-million sterling, off the trunnion of the mighty cannon Zam-Zammah. Kipling loved India and wrote that it was the only democratic place in the world. It warms us to read this, but of course this was quite untrue in Kipling’s time and...

Several activists have asked the Planning Commission to take into account cultural norms if it wanted to ensure success of minority welfare schemes. To make his point, Shabnam Hashmi, of the NGO Anhad, cited as example the plan panel’s proposal of giving bicycles to girls from the minority community where school attendance is low. “This,” Hashmi said, “shows the complete lack of understanding of cultural norms in Muslim areas.” While bicycles provide mobility...

To many Indians, the word “politician” invariably invokes familiar scenes of din and disruption in Parliament, if not the taint of corruption. Yet from time to time, a little-noticed — and perhaps rather quaint — parliamentary tradition tends to suggest that at least some of India’s MPs may have a place in their heart for issues concerning the ordinary citizen. Of the 79 private members’ bills listed today in the Lok Sabha’s...

As many as 30 per cent of adolescent girls in India (aged between 15-19 years) were married, and at least 22 per cent women aged 20 to 24 became mothers before attaining adulthood in India, says a UNICEF report. The report by UNICEF, based on a survey conducted in the period 2000-2010, says only five per cent of male adolescents were married when compared to girls. Released globally on Thursday, the report...

On Thursday, the Union Cabinet is likely to discuss a bill that will make sexual intercourse or 'contact with sexual intent' with a child - which is any one below 18 years - illegal. The 'sexual offences against children bill' proposes tough penal provisions ranging from three years' imprisonment to life termfor a person who commits sexual harassment, sexual assault, penetrative sexual assault or aggravated penetrative sexual assault. This is...