-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre has nudged schools and colleges to appoint student gender monitors who will report any incident of gender bias or sexual harassment on the campus to designated teachers. Although the government has dubbed the measure an "outreach for creating an environment that fosters equal treatment", social Activists said a sensitisation programme would have worked better than a system that will only create snitches. According to government guidelines issued...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a move to put the rights of women in live-in relationships and single independent daughters on a legally firmer footing, an expert committee set up the Centre has recommended an amendment to the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) to ensure their rightful claim to maintenance. The report is expected to be discussed at an inter-ministerial meeting on Monday. The Pam Rajput Committee report, recently submitted to...

-The Hindu Kuruvanka (Hassan district, Karnataka): People residing in Dalit colony in Kuruvanka village in Channarayapatna taluk are not allowed to touch water in the village pond. This has been the practice from time immemorial. If they want water, they have to request someone from the ‘upper’ castes in the village to pour water in their pots. When this reporter visited the village on Friday, an elderly woman from the colony was...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Marital rape could soon be an offence, if a Centre-appointed panel has its way. The Pam Rajput committee, that recently submitted its report to the women and child development (WCD) ministry, has recommended that as a pro-woman measure, marital rape should be consider an offence irrespective of the age of the wife and the relationship between the perpetrator and survivor. The recommendations will be discussed in an inter-ministerial...

-Hindustan Times When right to information Activist Guru Prasad Shukla was beaten to death by fellow villagers last month, he became the 39th person to lay down his life for exercising the transparency law in its first decade. Another 275 people have reportedly been assaulted or harassed for invoking the law to raise uncomfortable questions before those in power. The 50-year-old Shukla had sought information about development work in his village and...