When Nirupama Pathak left this remote mining region for graduate school in New Delhi, she seemed to be leaving the old India for the new. Her parents paid her tuition and did not resist when she wanted to choose her own career. But choosing a husband was another matter. Her family was Brahmin, the highest Hindu caste, and when Ms. Pathak, 22, announced she was secretly engaged to a young man...
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No Dalit cook for students in this UP school
Another shameful incident has brought the caste inequalities in an otherwise modern India to the fore. Parents rioted outside a school in Uttar Pradesh after discovering that the cook who prepared food for their children under the mid-day meal scheme was a Dalit. The Government middle school in the newly created Ramabai Nagar district of Uttar Pradesh has 191 students, nearly half of them who belong to so-called upper castes...
More »'Honour' killing: It's a global phenomenon
Even as the government is contemplating bringing in a new law to deal with the spurt in honour killings, reports by human rights organisations show that cold-blooded murders in the name of saving family pride had been prevalent in many parts of the world. Honour killings have been rampant in orthodox and socially backward groups in many countries including India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, Jordan and the Palestinian Territories, they say....
More »Delhi most unsafe for women, finds UN survey by Shambhavi Rai
If you are a woman living in the Capital and you are perpetually scared of being sexually harassed, you're not alone. About 85 per cent of Delhi's women feel the same way, this according to a survey conducted by the Delhi government along with the United Nations and Jagori, an NGO. The survey was conducted on more than 5000 women in the Capital. According to the study three out of five...
More »NAC seeks universal inclusion under food security legislation by Liz Mathew
A panel of experts that sets the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance administration’s social agenda is likely to reject a draft law to offer cash compensation to the poor, who do not receive their quota of subsidized foodgrain. Members of the National Advisory Council (NAC), which is led by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, insisted during a Thursday meeting that the entitlement should be universal, instead of being restricted to families below the...
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