Mai-baap. That is how poor Indians referred to the state ever since independence. The benign provider looking after its subjects like the rajas of yore. But, today, the people have started demanding accountability from the mai-baap. Why? Because a clutch of new laws, like the Right To Information Act (RTI) and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), are moving the government's developmental promises beyond "the realm of a privilege that...

About eight children go missing every day in the city, according to an RTI reply by Delhi Police. Across the city, over 2161 children had gone missing within a span of 270 days this year. Of them, 603 are yet to be traced. The chilling story was disclosed by the Alliance for Peoples' Rights, an NGO, after analyzing the consolidated figures of children who went missing between January and September this...

Majority believe environment, livelihood are at stake Region falls in seismic zone III, which is not suitable for nuclear plants Villagers contest NPCIL claim that 626.527 out of 938 hectares acquired is barren It will be a mistake to construe the people's struggle against the proposed Jaitapur Nuclear Power Project as an agitation for higher compensation, says a social impact assessment report prepared by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. A majority strongly believe...

Indian civil society was dismayed and horror-struck when human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen, who has spent over three decades caring for the poor in tribal areas of central India, was sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘sedition’ along with two others, Piyush Guha and Narayan Sanyal by a Raipur Sessions Court judge.  Protests are taking place everywhere in the country and the members of India’s vibrant civil society, peoples’ movements,...

Vinita Kamte, the wife of slain additional commissioner of police Ashok Kamte who died fighting terrorists during the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, has been declared the winner of National RTI Award 2010 in the ‘Best RTI Citizen’ category. Right to information activist Satish Shetty, who was murdered in Lonavla, would be honoured posthumously along with 10 RTI Activists who were killed recently. The awards ceremony is slated to be held in January...