-Press release by National Alliance of Peoples' Movements  dated 28 November, 2019 In yet another of its egregious legislative misadventures, the BJP Government with support from some other parties, passed the regressive 'Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights)' Bill, in the Rajya Sabha yesterday, despite wide-spread opposition by members of the transgender, intersex and gender non-confirming communities, seeking referral of the Bill to a Select Committee. We have all been witness to...

-The Hindu The draft rules to the Wages Act, a law expected to provide economic and social justice, will only exploit workers further Amidst the upheaval of debates concerning hate-violence, Article 370 of the Constitution, the temple at Ayodhya, and others, the Central government has finally woken up to examine the backbone of the Indian economy (working people), by proposing the rules to the labour Code on Wages Act 2019. Earlier in...

-Scroll.in They wrote a letter to the polling body, pointing out that the doubts about voting machines used in the elections were ‘yet to be resolved satisfactorily’. A group of former bureaucrats has written to the Election Commission of India, asking for a social audit of the last General Elections in order to establish its integrity and fairness. In a letter dated November 19, they cited various media reports to say that unauthorised...

-Down to Earth State government misused Article 371 (G) to revoke FRA in Mizoram, critics allege The Mizoram government passed a resolution revoking the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA) in its assembly session on November 19, 2019. Under Article 371 (G) of the Constitution, Mizoram has a special provision which makes it mandatory for all legislations of Parliament pertaining to land...

  A high maternal mortality ratio (MMRatio) indicates low status of women in the society apart from poor functioning of the health services delivery system. Recently released data by the Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin indicates that for the country as a whole the MMRatio has steadily declined from 398.0 in 1997-98 to 122.0 in 2015-17, which is a fall by -69.3 percent. Table-1 shows that India's MMRatio was 398.0 in 1997-98,...