The government is spending billions of dollars on welfare schemes, and plans even more this year. But that is news to Poona, whose daughter may soon die from that stain on India's growth story -- malnutrition. Poona, who married at 14 and breaks quarry stones for a living, shielded her daughter's sunken face from a harsh summer sun with her blue sari. She does not know Urmila's weight, but the...

P. Chidambaram today took on civil society organisations for showing sympathy towards maoists by training guns at social activist and writer Arundhati Roy. “If the CPI (maoist) overthrows the established authority and seizes power, will they allow any human rights organisation to function in this country? Will all those, who write 33-page articles, be allowed to write 33-page articles? Will there be a magazine to publish a 33-page article?” the Union...

Naxalites are India's worst human rights offenders, says a new report on Torture in India. But maoist supporters maintain that the Naxals are fighting for survival. A report on Torture in India has made the startling revelation. The Asian Centre for Human Rights says that the maoists are the worst violators when it comes to torture. For the first time ever, a top human rights group in India has accepted...

If you want to understand why the maoists grow stronger, watch frail Shyam Charan Kisku, 5, as he keeps hunger away by nibbling at a wild berry called Kendu on a hot April afternoon. Kisku and 40-odd children in this scraggly village of mud-and-thatch homes, 180km south-east of Jharkhand’s capital Ranchi, did not get their free lunch this day under the national mid-day meal scheme, the world’s largest cooked-meal programme. Kisku’s mother,...

maoists in the Indian state of Bihar have apologised to students for blowing up their school buildings. More than 25 school buildings have been razed to the ground by maoists in Bihar over the last year - at least five have been destroyed in the past week. The rebels said it was necessary to destroy them because they were being used as camps by the security forces. On Tuesday, rebels killed...