-Economic and Political Weekly Strict implementation of NHRC guidelines for investigation into fake “encounters” is a must. The killing of five suspected bank robbers in Chennai on 23 February by police officers tasked with apprehending them looks suspiciously like yet another case of a fake “encounter”. News reports following the killing have brought out various inconsistencies in the claim of the police that they fired in self-defence. After directives from the National Human...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Planning, Execution by Anuradha Raman
Women and impoverished, illiterate tribals fall prey to Madhya Pradesh’s overweening family planning zeal Birth Control 1951 Family planning as a policy is launched in independent India 1978 Rechristened Family Welfare after the emergency 2000 National Population Policy aims at stable population by 2045 2010 Madhya Pradesh launches targeted family planning NPP says sterilisation should be last resort in family planning. *** When Shyam Lal* walked into a primary health centre at Rewa, a dusty little town in...
More »Election results: CBI’s sword hangs over Mulayam, family by Dhananjay Mahapatra
The Samajwadi Party pedalled to a podium finish in the UP polls, but a five-year-old Supreme Court order asking the CBI to inquire into an alleged disproportionate assets case of Mulayam Singh and kin could queer their victory pitch. Going by the popular perception that the CBI heeds to the Centre's command in political cases, the Yadavs could ill-afford not to take note of the spoiler that the Congress-led UPA may...
More »Novartis vs India: the showdown approaches by Simon Reid-Henry
The Swiss-based pharmaceutical giant Novartis is taking the state of India to court in a case that has, after rumbling about in the lower courts for six years, wound up as a very public litmus test of the legal framework sustaining India’s generic drugs revolution. With the case due before the Supreme Court on 28 March, the fate of millions who depend on affordable Indian medicines may soon hang in the...
More »Rights council wants scolding ban in schools by Ananya Sengupta
Teachers, forget the word scold if you want to steer clear of trouble — or even jail. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights has said no teacher can discriminate or mentally abuse a child based on his/her physical disability, caste, colour, gender or religion. Its new guidelines, which have to be ratified by the human resource development ministry, also forbid teachers from using sarcasm, humiliating adjectives, ridicule based on a...
More »