-Down to Earth Police and transport department ignored months of protests by users of non-motorised transport After months of protests against an unprecedented embargo on cycles and other forms of non-motorised transport, activists in Kolkata have filed a public interest petition before the Calcutta High Court. The petition was filed on January 18 by non-profit Switch On along with Prasant Purkait, a user who delivers pest control services on a humble bicycle....

-The Indian Express The gangrape may have brought the tribal councils of this West Bengal district to notoriety, but it wasn't the first sexual abuse on their orders. What is more at play here though is growing outside interference in a region considered a vote bank, writes Madhuparna Das. On January 29 evening, 900 people of a village in Birbhum district's Labhpur block gathered near the hut of their headman. The hut,...

-The Hindu Rights may be self-evident and constitutionally secured; however, they do not automatically implement themselves In the last two years the highest courts in the country have responded to a mass call for more protection for women. Alongside, there have been many judgments from non-constitutional decision-making bodies like khap panchayats and kangaroo courts sanctioning violence against particular women or curtailing women's freedom in significant ways. Why is it that while there...

-The Indian Express Chhattisgarh government is unable to accept the right to protest and unwilling to hear the people's voice. By going to town as the Chhattisgarh police and media have recently done on my alleged Maoist links, the real questions have been sidelined. As citizens of this country, do we have the right to protest democratically and constitutionally, and as journalists, researchers or human rights activists, are we free to pursue...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: The state will slash the proposed number of security camps at Saranda, indicating a welcome wane in Maoist presence and influence in Asia's largest sal reserve, but the health of the showpiece action plan for 55 forest villages is open to question two years after its launch. Around the start of the Rs 249-crore Saranda Action Plan in December 2011, soon renamed to Saranda Development Plan, 24 security camps...