-The Hindu Ordinance on rape a knee-jerk reaction, says activists Death penalty for rape of girls upto 12 years will deter the victim and their families from reporting such crimes instead of acting as a deterrent for criminals, said activists who slammed the government for its “knee-jerk reaction” in bringing an ordinance on the issue. “In cases of child sexual assaults we know that most of these crimes are committed by people...

-Hindustan Times Many face backlash and are boycotted from their communities for marrying outside their caste. With the social boycott bill, that came into effect last July, there is hope for the victims. Pune: On a cloudy Thursday morning in January, 1990, in Pune’s Cantt area, Umesh and Manju walked out of their homes separately — anxious and excited. After a month of waiting, the court had given them a date...

-Hindustan Times Despite a rare, legal victory, Dalits of Mirchpur are back on the streets — to fight for the SC/ST Act that helped them win a case seven years ago. Mirchpur, Hisar (Haryana): Gulab Singh, 80, is frail and bent with age. He hobbles around with a wooden stick at the makeshift camp he lives in, outside Haryana’s Hisar city. But on April 2, defying his body and age, he marched...

-The Indian Express Farmers and activists, who have jointly raised the issue with NHSRC say that they were given “no time” to prepare for the meetings nor are the railway officials presenting the report of impact assessment. Vadodara/ Surat: The National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRC), which has begun its meetings with “stakeholders” to assess the social impact and damage from the ambitious Ahmedabad-Mumbai “bullet train” project, is facing protests from farmers...

-The Hindu In its first part of the expose, Cobrapost carried out a sting operation against the representatives of seven TV news channels, six newspapers, three web portals and an agency. Investigative platform Cobrapost on Monday said it had exposed several Indian media houses whose representatives allegedly showed willingness to peddle the Hindutva ideology and malign many senior Opposition leaders and Union Ministers in lieu of proceeds ranging from ?6 crore to...