Over 1,500 farmers from 16 villages took part in a panchayat held outside the Greater Noida Authority office on Sunday to decide the future course of action in their protest against the state government’s land acquisition policies and rates. The farmers, who have been protesting at the Authority’s local office for a month, have decided to forcibly stop work undertaken by Greater Noida Authority in the district from Monday. “We...

Impressing upon political parties to take note of discrimination against women from the Dalit and backward communities, scores of women panchayat council representatives on Friday demanded quota within quota in the Women's Reservation Bill. They were participating in a day-long conclave organised by ActionAid India here. Over 50 of them were from Bihar, West Bengal, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. “Yes, in theory women are equal to men. But even stepping out of...

What pleases Sunita Devi most about her position in Garhi Hakeeqat is not the Women’s Reservation Bill promising mandatory reservation for women in the electoral process that will promote many like her, but the proud remembrance of the day she climbed up the village chaupal. Until three years ago, the rules were stiff. The chaupal, a raised, circular platform-like structure for public meetings was, for all practical purposes, considered a preserve...

A village girl in Burdwan stormed out of her wedding venue today though the rituals had been completed and, rubbing off the sindoor on her head, said she did not accept the marriage because the groom’s family was demanding a huge dowry. The boy, owner of a car rental agency, was garlanded with shoes by angry villagers and was being kept confined at a local temple along with his sister and...

ON February 12, Meham town in Rohtak district, Haryana, saw a citizens’ convention that was unusual in more than one sense. First, it was being held from the ramparts of the Meham Chaubisi Chabootara, a platform reserved for members of the Meham panchayat (a conglomeration of 24 villages, better known as the Meham Chaubisi). Second, the meeting was not dominated by any one caste. Third, it was a congregation of...