Any Indian denied food security rights will be able to seek quick legal redress if the government accepts a suggestion from the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council. The council wants the National Food Commission, a watchdog against any violation of the National Food Security Bill, to be given all the powers of a civil court. Its verdicts are to be binding on the government. Such a measure will help provide quicker and...
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Behind the global scourge of child labour by Kailash Satyarthi
Its elimination is an international obligation, but there is a long way to go to meet the goal While governments and civil society commemorate the World Day Against Child Labour on June 12, over 20 crore children are still engaged as child labourers. More than half of them face the worst forms of child labour. Though India has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of child labourers, this...
More »World Bank dictates India’s food policy by Tarun Nangia
The World Bank and a pliant UPA Government plan to do away with India's public distribution system and shut down four lakh ration shops. The excuse-the Public Distribution System (PDS) spends Rs 45,000 crore every year to supply BPL families wheat, rice, kerosene and sugar of which 60 per cent of grain is looted by the food mafia. The 412page 'World Bank Report: Social Protection for Changing India', released on...
More »Thus Spake Hammurabi by Saikat Datta, Anuradha Raman
As the Lokpal Bill gets mired in a tortuous birthing, the debate shifts to who exactly has the right to pass a law Why Politicians Hate Civil Society * Unelected activists stealing Parliament’s right to make laws, undercutting role of parliamentarians * Demands like an all-powerful Lokpal directly impact political-bureaucratic class and the status quo * Rigid deadlines, fasts unto death to press home issues are akin to holding government...
More »Battle over the Anti-Violence Bill by John Dayal
Victims have not forgotten the following brutal tragedies in the life of independent India, even if the State and political parties may pretend to have. 1984—Delhi: On October 31, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by her two Sikh bodyguards in revenge for ‘Operation Bluestar’. For the next three days, as Doordarshan telecast the lying in state of her body, over 3000 Sikhs—men and boys—were burnt alive while policemen, politicians and...
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