-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,...

-Down to Earth UPA gives sops under MGNREGS to attract rural voters ahead of elections WITH most of its recent schemes struggling, a desperate UPA government is pinning its hopes on Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to win votes in 2014 elections. The government is overhauling the employment scheme that helped it return to power in 2009 for a reason. It touches the lives of over 55 per cent...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Disability rights activists from across the country have come together to demand that the government incorporate crucial amendments to the new Disability Rights Bill before introducing it in Parliament on February 5 and passing it. A leaked copy of the bill created a furore as activists realised that the Bill readied to be passed was not the draft available on the ministry of social justice...

-The Hoot Koraput's community radio Dhimsa has become the voice of tribals to convey their messages to the administration Tribals of Koraput, a district in Odisha, may not be able to deliver their complaints and grievances directly to the administration but with the help of community radio jockeys like Julie, Sahadev, Bhakta and Udai, they are definitely heard. Koraput, about 500 kms from Bhubaneswar, may not have many modern facilities, but the tribals...

-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...