The United Progressive Alliance government on Friday unveiled its second draft Bill addressing the burning issues of land acquisition as well as rehabilitation and resettlement (R&R). The National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill, 2011, as recommended by the National Advisory Council, will make it mandatory that gram sabhas are consulted and the R&R package is executed before the acquired land is transferred. Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh...

The rates of maternal and infant mortality have improved only marginally, according to the latest Sample Registration System. THE country's largest demographic sample survey, covering 1.4 million households and a population of 7.01 million, during the period 2007-09, says that there was only a mild improvement in the infant mortality rate (IMR) and the maternal mortality ratio (MMR). The findings of the latest Sample Registration System (SRS), an exercise which...

-ANI   Kanker, (Chhattisgarh) July 20 (ANI): The evils of society somehow seem to impact women more. This is true down the ages, in practically every society. Women bear the brunt of regressive practices, not necessarily relating to them as women specifically but affecting society in its entirety. Superstition, age-old prejudices and even so-called 'social norms ' actually hurt them more than anyone else in society. 'Sati' horrifies us today. It is illegal....

The Food Security Bill, approved by a group of ministers this month, has ignored malnutrition as a subject, surprising many observers in UN bodies. The reason given is a turf war among different central ministries. According to N C Saxena, a member of the National Advisory Council that has opposed the government’s draft of the Bill, the women and child development ministry was against including the subject in the Bill as...

Environmental protection within particular societies involves a complex balancing process and ordering of socio-economic priorities. In relation to other rights, where does an environmental right fit into a hierarchy of human rights and how should the conflicts with other human rights, such as right to property/ livelihood, be resolved? How to balance environmental protection with a general or collective right to economic development? Indian courts have proceeded by balancing interests and...