-Newsclick.in Both BJP and BSP may see dwindling dalit support with SP-RLD-SBSP alliance gaining. The political churning going on in Uttar Pradesh is arguably the most intense among the dalit communities which make up a sizeable 21% of the population of the state. In the last election, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had managed to get significant support from various dalit communities winning 74 of 84 seats reserved for Scheduled Castes....

-The Hindu Handbook sees prejudices and ignorance or deliberate misinformation campaign on the exercise The Registrar General of India (RGI) anticipates “organised movement” against the decennial Census exercise such as agitation for inclusion of Other Backward Classes (OBC) and court cases against the collection of data for the National Population Register (NPR). The concern is documented in the Census of India 2021 Handbook for Principal/District Census Officers and Charge Officers that has been...

-Press release by the Right to Food Campaign Secretariat dated February 23, 2022 * 66 percent respondents said that their income has decreased compared to the pre-pandemic period * 80 percent reported some form of food insecurity, 25 percent reported severe food insecurity * 41 percent said that nutritional quality of their diet deteriorated compared to the pre-pandemic period * 67 percent could not afford cooking gas in the month preceding the survey. * 45...

-India Spend/ Scroll.in While the total number of prison inmates rose by 1% between 2019 and 2020, the number of undertrial inmates increased by nearly 12% Three in four prisoners in India’s jails are under trial, according to government data for the year 2020, the latest year for which such data is available. This is the highest share of undertrial detainees in prison since at least 1995, the earliest year for which...

-Hindustan Times The ministry of social justice and empowerment on February 17 updated the mandatory condition for the scholarship. Students from marginalised sections of society will no longer be able to study Indian culture, heritage, history and social studies under the government’s national overseas scholarship programme, a move that has been criticised by the teaching fraternity and the opposition Congress party. “The government should steer clear of deciding the choice of the topics...