India’s decision-makers seem to find it difficult to see that there are children in the country. Being unable to see them, they are unable to perceive that they are hungry. In an age when we are able to use euphemisms like ‘under-nutrition’, this is perhaps not surprising. But it is disgraceful none the less.   This country has a large population of children. Fortyone per cent of its total numbers. The national...

-ANI Sunita Kumari, a twelve year old Dalit girl from Balthar Mod, Jharkhand, a student of class seven, was forced into marriage not once but twice. Her first tie-up was at the age of seven with a mentally challenged person residing in the nearby Siktia village. Soon after the marriage Sunita escaped from the trap and the first thing she did after coming back was to request her mother to let her...

-The Times of India   Thousands of dalits and tribals took to streets in Sonbhadra on Sunday to protest against the illegal mining taking place in the district. The immediate cause of the protest was the recent mining accident which left over 10 labourers dead. The protesters organised a march and gheraoed the local police station.  They also handed over a memorandum to the district administration. Addressed to the governor, the memorandum demanded...

-The Indian Express Section 377 violates the right to equality, whatever be the gay or HIV numbers Examining the appeal on Section 377 (which had been struck down by the Delhi high court, effectively decriminalising homosexuality), the Supreme Court had been careful to unpack many of the terms that obscure the issue, like “unnatural” and “abnormal”. The government, after confusedly spinning around on its stand, finally went with the health ministry’s earlier...

Kanak Dixit: We have with us Aruna Roy, from Devdungri village in Rajasthan, who has, among other things, been able to take the Right to Information (RTI) from janasunuwais, or public hearings at the village level, all the way to national legislation that encompasses all of India. It is a movement that is truly global in scale. Aruna, a question that has been troubling me quite a bit in the context...