A MARRIAGE hall in Kolkata is packed with 1200 of India’s poorest citizens. They have trekked here from all over West Bengal, from remote forests and dingy alleyways, from Howrah, East Midnapore, South 24 Parganas. They have come because there is a story to tell, a brutal story that may otherwise never be told. Finally, there are people willing to hear. These people may never bring justice; may never be...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Turnaround of India State Could Serve as a Model by Lydia Polgreen
For decades the sprawling state of Bihar, flat and scorching as a griddle, was something between a punch line and a cautionary tale, the exact opposite of the high-tech, rapidly growing, rising global power India has sought to become. Criminals could count on the police for protection, not prosecution. Highwaymen ruled the shredded roads and kidnapping was one of the state’s most profitable businesses. Violence raged between Muslims and Hindus, between...
More »Sonia back as NAC chief, to push 'aam admi' agenda
The National Advisory Council is back with Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at its head, promising to give a strong fillip to the UPA government's social sector agenda that is at the heart of the party's political strategy to consolidate its 'aam admi' base. The revival of the NAC, that had folded up following Sonia's resignation after the office-of-profit controversy, has been on the cards since the Supreme Court gave its...
More »Bank at your doorstep
Technology is helping public sector banks find customers in rural India. This is part of the Centre’s efforts to include villages in the organized financial system; to ensure they are not cheated of their wages. Pilots show promise The current state of rural banking in the country is poor. A recent report, by the National Sample Survey Organization, revealed that 51.4 per cent of the 89.3 million total farmer households in...
More »Harass law to be stricter by Charu Sudan Kasturi
Institutions will need to protect not just female employees but even women visiting office premises from sexual harassment under new, last-minute changes to India’s proposed law against sex pests at the workplace. The changes proposed by the women and child development ministry cover victims, not working, where they face sexual harassment from an employee, protecting girls visiting their parents’ Offices or women atheletes training at sports camps. The law ministry...
More »