-The Hindu The Betul tragedy shows that the state does not consider emotional or intellectual maturity important in a person who teaches children Picture a small boy facing two adult men. They are furious over something they suspect he has done, so they start hitting him. They feel they have the authority to do so because they are teachers. The boy is absolutely helpless. It hardly matters for this picture whether he...

-The Hindu The European Parliament in Strasbourg on Thursday conducted an hour-long debate over the persistence of human rights violations against dalits in India. While acknowledging the efforts at various levels to eradicate caste discrimination, the Parliament however, expressed alarm at the continually large number of reported and unreported atrocities and widespread untouchability practices, such as manual scavenging. On its previous resolutions on the issue (February 2007 and April 2012), the Parliament noted...

-The Hindu NAGAPATTINAM: When PMK launched its tirade against inter-caste marriages involving dalit men, political parties came on board to criticize the statements by Ramadoss. Activists and feminist intellectuals say that what was lost in the melee was the voice of dalit and Vanniyar women, rendered silent by the confines of caste. “Cast in caste, they have become prized trophies to be owned, regulated and guarded by the menfolk of the respective...

-The Indian Express Patna: Out of 534 block development officers posted across Bihar, 181 or one-third are currently facing probe — mostly for alleged misuse and misappropriation of fund meant for the Indira Awas Yojana. In fact, 58 BDOs face corruption charges for their dubious role in the implementation of IAY. This was revealed in an RTI query by Buxur resident Shiv Prakash Rai, who had asked for a list of...

-The Hindu Sunita Devi couldn’t take her Class IX final exams because the date clashed with the day of her marriage. Nine years on, she has not completed her degree course, but teaches other dalit women who couldn’t continue their studies after marriage. The resident of Baghpat in western Uttar Pradesh was recounting her story to a large number of dalit women who gathered here on Tuesday as part of the first...