Uttar Pradesh may be ruled by a Dalit Chief Minister but poor Dalits in the state's rural areas continue to suffer under the oppression of upper caste politicians. One such case is that of a 50-year old dalit Budhai Ram of Sidhauli village in Sitapur district, 80 kilometres from Lucknow. Budhai Ram apparently made the mistake of filing a Right to Information petition at the office of the Sitapur district...

As India was celebrating 63 years of Independence, the village of Tappal around 80 kilometers from Aligarh resembled a battleground - the epicentre of Violence between farmers and the police since Saturday. There were protests in Mathura as well. Hundreds of farmers were demanding higher compensation for their land that has been acquired for the Yamuna expressway, a 165-km road corridor between Noida and Agra. The agitation turned violent after police allegedly...

Suffering from extreme poverty and male oppression, the women of Darkali village in Madhya Pradesh, India, are now able to feed their families through employment under the MGNREGS. The wages obtained under the Scheme help them augment the family resource base. Jashmabai is working under the punishing sun on an earthen dam in her village of Darkali, in Madhya Pradesh's Alirajpur district, being built under the government-funded Mahatma Gandhi National Rural...

Trouble erupted at Jikarpur, near Aligarh, on Saturday night after rumours spread that a farmer leader had been arrested near the village. Police opened fire to disperse the violent protesters and bring the situation under control, said SSP (Aligarh) Vijay Prakash, who was transferred on Sunday. B.D. Palson, SSP of Mathura, which too was hit by the Violence, was also shifted. Two persons and a PAC jawan were killed and nine injured in...

Farmers in Aligarh and Mathura districts of Uttar Pradesh went on a rampage, blocking roads and setting vehicles ablaze on Sunday after two persons were killed in police firing on Saturday. They were staging a demonstration to demand higher compensation for land acquired by the state government to build the Agra-Yamuna Expressway. A police official was also killed in the Violence on Saturday. "Nearly half-a-dozen people were injured in clash with the...