-The Telegraph New Delhi: An effort has begun to enrol India's street children in the Aadhaar programme, which will allow them in principle to obtain school admission, open bank accounts and secure government welfare. Some child rights Activists, however, fear it will be a "cosmetic endeavour" in the absence of a government rehab programme, since few of these children have money to keep in banks or the resources to study. National Commission for...

-The Indian Express The gangrape may have brought the tribal councils of this West Bengal district to notoriety, but it wasn't the first sexual abuse on their orders. What is more at play here though is growing outside interference in a region considered a vote bank, writes Madhuparna Das. On January 29 evening, 900 people of a village in Birbhum district's Labhpur block gathered near the hut of their headman. The hut,...

-Economic and Political Weekly The Right to Information mechanism is sought to be diluted by certain bodies by the arbitrary use of pre-existing procedures and rules which were enacted at a time when citizens' right to information had little or no consequence. These rules also lack procedural safeguards and have onerous fees devoid of any reasonableness. The aggrieved citizen had no choice but to approach the courts. This trend must be...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Disability rights Activists from across the country have come together to demand that the government incorporate crucial amendments to the new Disability Rights Bill before introducing it in Parliament on February 5 and passing it. A leaked copy of the bill created a furore as Activists realised that the Bill readied to be passed was not the draft available on the ministry of social justice...

-The Indian Express Chhattisgarh government is unable to accept the right to protest and unwilling to hear the people's voice. By going to town as the Chhattisgarh police and media have recently done on my alleged Maoist links, the real questions have been sidelined. As citizens of this country, do we have the right to protest democratically and constitutionally, and as journalists, researchers or human rights Activists, are we free to pursue...