-Frontline   Swagata Raha, a senior legal researcher (Consultant) at the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, said the Juvenile Justice Bill, 2015, “incorrectly assumes that children are competent to stand trial as adults”. Currently pursuing Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford, Swagata Raha worked extensively on the campaign against the Juvenile Justice Bill and has written extensively...

-The Hindu The production of waste in India is growing at an exponential rate. However, the welfare and dignity of the informal workers involved in the stigmatised sector of waste management remains at the bottom of any government’s political agenda. Human society has always produced waste and always will. Waste materials — substances without value — are constantly generated in all production, all distribution and all consumption processes. The time waste spends...

-Hindustan Times New Delhi: For a number of child beggars in the city, begging is a part-time job since they also manage to do street-vending and ragpicking. More than 57% child beggars stated this in a survey conducted by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR). Even as police hint at an organised racket, this study on such minors reveals a sorry tale as 80% children were forced into begging...

-The Indian Express Kerala Excise Minister K Babu on Friday said the state is confronting a major challenge as liquor-addicts are exploring new ways to set off the reduced availability of liquor. Thiruvananthapuram: After closure of 712 liquor bars below five- star category in Kerala April this year, abuse of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances is going up alarmingly along with the increased sale of illegal liquor and even stimulating ayurvedic tonics,...

-The Indian Express With the country’s ace survey body unsure, the matter has been in a limbo for a year now. New Delhi: The government’s efforts for a nationwide assessment of drug abuse has hit an unexpected hurdle. The country’s largest survey body, the National Sample Survey Organisation, has said it cannot carry out the job as it does not have the required expertise. NSSO has, however, said at internal meetings...