-Newsclick.in Weavers' cooperatives struggling due to lack of orders from two state govt. owned retailing units along with other factors Kolkata:  The famous   “khat-khat- khat “  sound that comes from a traditional handloom weavers hut is becoming fainter in Shantipur of Nadia district about 100 kilometres from the state Capital of Kolkata. Shantipur is known for its weaving skills and traditional weavers producing Shantipur sarees which are high in demand in...

-The Hindu It justifies the ‘intelligible differentia’ between scheduled castes practising Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism and those practising other religions The affidavit filed by the Union government before the Supreme Court Bench hearing the case for the inclusion of Dalit Christians and Dalit Muslims on the list of scheduled castes contradicts itself at several junctures, leading to a lack of clarity on its arguments defending the current criteria for determining which communities...

-Newsclick.in In the past five years, agri workers’ wage has increased by only about Rs.15 per year. For those leaders of the country who are tearing their hair trying to figure out how to get the economy moving, boost growth, increase investment and create jobs, it would be instructive to look at the plight of the largest economic class in the country – agricultural labourers. Numbering upward of 14 crore, they are...

-TheWire.in Methodological innovation is required to re-evaluate and investigate how backwardness is defined. The 11 criteria the Mandal Commission specified could act as a framework. The passing of the 124th Amendment Bill of the Indian constitution on January 14, 2019, made the way for a 10% ‘economically weaker sections’ or EWS quota in (a) educational institutions run by the Union government and private institutions (except those managed by minorities), and (b) in...

-The Hindu The affidavit goes against the 2011 recommendation of National Commission for scheduled castes With the Supreme Court awaiting the Union government’s present position on including Dalit Christians as members of scheduled castes (SCs), the Narendra Modi government’s latest standing on this aspect has been to reject any such proposition, according to an affidavit filed by the government in November 2019, which also said Dalits who converted to Buddhism could not...