-The Hindu While voices were rasied against the brutal gang-rape of the 23 year-old woman who tragically died on Saturday, what about the daily occurrences of rape and assault in the lives of Dalit women? Who will listen to the voices of the margins? Margins mean those who are not in the capital, those who are not part of the urban middle-class, and those who are not in the gaze of the...

-The Hindu Rohtak: Even as the government scrambles to assuage angry crowds protesting against the gang-rape of a girl in New Delhi, it continues to sit on a draft scheme submitted by the National Commission for Women (NCW) in 2010 that seeks to provide financial assistance and support services to rape victims. The scheme, which has also been circulated to the States for them to implement on their own, is bogged down...

-Frontline The Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill is an attempt to circumvent the hurdles before acquisition, such as rehabilitation of land losers, without much increasing the cost of land. THE preamble to the draft Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation (LARR) Bill is very noble; it talks about a “humane, informed, consultative and transparent process for land acquisition for industrialisation, development of essential infrastructural facilities and urbanisation with the least disturbance...

-Frontline THE newly christened Right to Fair compensation in Land Acquisition, Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2012, which was due to be passed in the Lok Sabha with amendments, has been deferred to the Budget session. Union Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh spoke to Frontline on the present status of the Bill and the debate on it within Parliament and outside. Excerpts from the interview: * What were the reasons for the...

-The Times of India The new Central Drug Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) guidelines meant to help calculate compensation in case of clinical trial related injury or death in a fair and equitable manner seem to be loaded against the very people it is meant to help. The guidelines suggest a formula based on the income of the injured or dead person along with age and severity of disease. Such a formula raises...