-The Times of India KAITHAL: As politicians and administrators in many northern Indian states were preparing to celebrate Dalit icon B R Ambedkar's 122nd birth anniversary this weekend, more than 100 Dalits were fleeing a small Haryana village after being chased by upper caste goons, angry that a Dalit man had dared to marry one of their girls. Meena and Surya Kant of Pabnama village in Kaithal were in a relationship for...

KEY TRENDS   • According to National Sample Survey report no. 583: Persons with Disabilities in India, the percentage of persons with disability who received aid/help from Government was 21.8 percent, 1.8 percent received aid/help from organisation other than Government and another 76.4 percent did not receive aid/ help *8   • As per National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4), the Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) was 57.2 per 1,000 live births (for the non-STs it was 38.5)...

-The Hindu   Death of 4 children is coming to light now One more infant has died of alleged malnutrition in Attappady here, taking the toll of such deaths to five in the past two months. Six-month-old Kaliyamma, daughter of Shelvan and Veeramma of Kadampara tribal hamlet in Sholayur grama panchayat of Attappady, who was admitted to the Kottathara Tribal Speciality Hospital on March 22, died on Friday night. Meanwhile, an ongoing survey by...

-The Hindu Gadchiroli: The villagers of Sindhesur village in Gadchiroli district , where seven people died during an encounter between police and the Maoists on Friday, alleged that the Maoists tried to use some of the villagers present at the spot as human shields. Two villagers of Sindhesur village Mukesh Hidko and Sukhdev Gawade died, apart from four Maoists and one police Jawan, in the cross firing between police and the Maoists...

-The Hindu Jaipur: In an atmosphere where every morning, our newspapers greet us with stories of girls being tormented, raped, killed or treated like a doormat in one way or another, trust India's "village republics" to bring in some good news from time to time. One such village in southern Rajasthan's Rajsamand district is quietly practicing its own, homegrown brand of Eco-feminism and achieving spectacular results. For the last several years, Piplantri village...