Leprosy has officially been eliminated in India, yet 130,000 new cases are diagnosed every year. Richard Cookson and Seyi Rhodes report on the plight of the patients shunned by society Narsappa was just 10 years old when he was told he had leprosy, but the news changed the course of his life forever. People in his Indian village immediately began to shun him and told his parents that he had to...

Six months ago, when dictrict collector R Prasanna was transferred from Maoist-affected Bijapur to neighbouring Dantewada, local residents held rallies urging him not to leave. Now, as he readies to launch a development plan for Dantewada on April 1, Prasanna finds himself transferred. The collector's transfer comes after days of intense drama during which the district police stood accused of torching nearly 300 homes in three villages and obstructing both...

Let Aruna die? No, with her alive, there’s more power, media attention. Hence, the politics of mercy in medicine. Lucknow airport. Late ’90s. Khushwant Singh and I are waiting for our flights, we talk about Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee mentioning my book Once Was Bombay in a speech on collapsing cities. He suddenly asks, “You wrote that book on the woman who neither lives nor dies, you still see her?” I...

“His death is a planned conspiracy by middlemen and contractors” Niyamat Ansari, a member of the NREGA Sahayata Kendra, was found beaten to death in Jharkhand's Latehar district, 110 km from here, on Thursday. He is said to have exposed many cases of corruption by local contractors in work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). R.K. Malik Inspector-General (operations) said some unidentified persons barged into Mr. Ansari's house...

An MGNREGA worker was allegedly thrashed-to-death by his contractor for demanding wages for the well digging work he had done at Bathua village under Harla police station here on Sunday. Sources said the deceased, Subal Mahto (50), a resident of Bathua, was assigned the task of digging a well along with four others under the MNREGA scheme at his village by the contractor, Bhaghirath Rajwar. They had been asked by...