Dalits lay siege to tahsildar's office and forced Salem district administration to take firm action Dalits of Sanyasipatti near Sankagiri in Salem district fought bitterly for five days before forcing the district administration to take firm action to demolish a four-foot-high and 20-foot-long wall erected right across a tar-topped road with the intention of preventing them from using it. The ‘wall of untouchability' erected on November 29 in the middle of the...

—PTI National Democratic Alliance convener and Janata Dal (United) president Sharad Yadav alleged on Sunday that a “Bellary-like mining scam” was going on in the Jabalpur-Satna region and demanded that Madhya Pradesh Government take action against those involved. “In the mineral-rich region of Jabalpur, Katni, Satna, Sidhi and Singrauli, a Bellary-like mining scam is taking place as no environmental clearances were taken for carrying out mining there,” Mr. Yadav alleged at a...

-BBC   A low-caste Dalit boy has been killed in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh for sharing a name with a man of a higher caste, police say. They said Neeraj Kumar's father Ram Sumer had been asked to change the names of two sons as they were the same as those of Jawahar Chaudhary's sons. The body of Neeraj, 14, was found on 23 November in a field. Two friends of...

JANGU, 40, a Dalit labourer in Paraspur village in Gonda district, 120 km northeast of Lucknow, displays his job card in complete disbelief. “My job card was made three years ago and shows three payments. But I was never given any work, so how was the payment made?” he asks, puzzled. The first entry shows a payment of Rs 1,400 but he received a paltry Rs 100. He never went...

Minority welfare schemes should target not districts but smaller units like hamlets and urban wards so that nobody passes under the radar, Sonia Gandhi’s National Advisory Council has told the Centre. The Centre’s 15-point programme for minorities, based on Sachar Committee recommendations, aims at multi-sector development in 90 districts with large minority populations. But the council believes this approach misses many who most need help while many non-minority residents reap indirect...