-DalitWeb.org She was young and carefree, exploring life and trying to live it to the fullest. As a young girl she wanted to look beautiful, study well and become an independent and confident woman. She used to enjoy her time with her friends and looked forward to go out and watch a movie with her male friend. Late one evening, the thrill and the excitement of the movie ended in the brutal...

-The Hindustan Times The government has decided to give the Election Commission the powers to make changes in seats reserved for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, where fresh changes have been detected during the last one decade in the population percentage of any Caste.   The law ministry is ready to seek the cabinet's approval for an ordinance soon, which will empower the EC to determine the...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today ticked off police in three northern states for claiming no khap (Caste) panchayats existed, observing that restricting girls from carrying mobile phones or wearing clothes of their choice violated the law. The apex court directed the khap panchayats of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh to file their response on the legal validity of their functioning as “parallel courts”. “If a woman can’t wear proper dress, if girls...

-The Indian Express In Jharkhand, a gap between politics of the tribal movement and electoral politics The recent dissolution of the Jharkhand assembly has brought to the fore the political uncertainty that hounds the state, with no leader or party managing to emerge as a viable representative of the people of Jharkhand. How does one interpret this feature, which many argue is unique to Jharkhand? Why is it that Jharkhand, particularly since...

-The Times of India Six years ago, the Sachar Committee reportshowed that the Muslim community in India suffers from severe deprivations in education, employment, health services, public infrastructure, access to financial services leading to much higher poverty than other religious groups, somewhat like the condition of scheduled Castes and tribes. The government responded by setting up a separate ministry for minority affairs, and launching several programs to provide benefits to the...