-Hindustan Times The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment on February 17 updated the mandatory condition for the scholarship. Students from marginalised sections of society will no longer be able to study Indian culture, heritage, history and social studies under the government’s national overseas scholarship programme, a move that has been criticised by the teaching fraternity and the opposition Congress party. “The government should steer clear of deciding the choice of the topics...

-Newsclick.in "Whosoever comes to power; my request is to constitute a technical team and explore and work on all the possible options to address and curb this menace." Udta Punjab, a Bollywood film released in 2016, highlighted the issue of the severe drug problem in Punjab. The movie acted as an eye-opener for many in the state. After five years, as the state is ready for another Assembly poll, the film has...

-ThePrint.in Social justice ministry noted that its field report indicated a deepening of caste division within village communities over segregation of workers into SCs, STs and others. New Delhi: The Modi government’s controversial decision to split wage payments along caste lines under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been withdrawn and the earlier system of payment from a single account has been restored, ThePrint has learnt. The move made...

-The Hindu “It has suffered, and will suffer, both on account of completeness and accuracy of the data,” an affidavit filed by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in the Supreme Court said. The government has made it clear in the Supreme Court that a caste census of the Backward Classes is “administratively difficult and cumbersome”. The Centre reasoned that even when the census of castes were taken in the pre-Independence period,...

-Firstpost.com For marginalised communities, modern education is a precious asset and a way for acquiring socio-economic mobility in an unequal society In the past few weeks, several students belonging to marginalised communities such as Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) have received offers to study in prestigious universities abroad including Royal Holloway London, Oxford University, SOAS, London, among others. However, privatisation in education has meant that the amount of wealth required for...