-The Hindustan Times In April, after yet another story of maid abuse came out in the open, a news magazine ran a cover story titled, ‘The new slaves’. While many would cringe at the thought of equating domestic workers with slaves, unfortunately that is exactly how many families treat their domestic help, taking advantage of a crowded labour market, lack of a credible support system for the help, weak implementation of...

-The Times of India The UP government on Friday scrapped former CM Mayawati's projects for Dalits and those named after their icons. The money allocated for such projects would be diverted to fulfill poll promises like Rs 1,000 monthly allowance for unemployed youth, pension to farmers above 65 besides laptops and PC tablets for students. Sources said the attempt was to ensure that welfare schemes benefit every section of the society and not...

It dismisses as “false and fabricated documents” fax messages claimed to have been sent by Sanjiv Bhatt The Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team has totally disagreed with the observations of amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran, and said no case can be made out against Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the 2002 communal riots under any of the Sections of the Indian Penal Code mentioned by him. Mr. Ramachandran, in his...

The first-ever national policy for domestic workers is all set to go to the CABinet for its approval, entitling them to minimum wages, defined work hours, paid annual and sick leave and maternity benefits. The thrust of the policy is to bring domestic workers under the purview of existing labour laws, which would help them avail all the rights and protection available to other workers. According to official estimates, India has...

-Down to Earth Biometric-based unique identity or Aadhaar is leading to huge problems for people working for the rural employment guarantee scheme and for others receiving welfare benefits. Not only have enrolments been done shoddily but the experience of the pilot projects shows that it is almost impossible to authenticate the work-hardened fingerprints of the poor, find Latha Jishnu and Jyotika Sood. Besides, there is the overwhelming issue of deficient online...