Social activist Medha Patkar has approached Governor M.C. Bhandare, apprehending fake encounter of the Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangh leader Nachika Linga even as police recommended that the government ban the organisation for its alleged Maoist links and violent activities. A delegation of social activists led by Patkar approached the governor with a memorandum containing a list of demands in support of the organisation. The team included Prafulla Samantra of the Lokshakti...

In most cases, the gravest threats to the human rights of citizens emanate from states.  The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed on December 10, 1948, transformed an aspiration into legally binding standards and spawned a raft of institutions to scrutinise government conformity and condemn noncompliance. It remains the central organising principle of global human rights and a source of power and authority on behalf of victims. A human right, owed...

CITIES MAKE one simple promise to newcomers: Sacrifice yourself to me and your children shall prosper. This promise drew Ahmed Raza, a small-time wrestler from an Uttar Pradesh village and millions like him to the capital of newly-independent India. Raza kept his part of the bargain, yet half a century later, his daughter was pushed out of the city her father helped build, the only home she has known. “I...

Even as attention is focused on the upcoming talks at Copenhagen, the Campaign for Survival and Dignity (CSD) notes a “dangerous side of negotiation” that has been taking place along the main talks. These negotiations have concerned a scheme called ‘REDD,’ which could result in a massive land grab across India’s forest and Adivasi belts, one that would make the current conflicts over land acquisition look minor, a CSD statement...

People of dalit communities in the Gadarwara sub-division of district Narsinghpur in Madhya Pradesh are on the brink of starvation as they are facing harassment, economic sanctions and social boycott because they have refused to remove animal carcasses. A fact finding team of civil society organisations says that dalits at many places have been ‘imprisoned’ in their own houses as all entry and exit points have been blocked by the...