Youngsters in certain parts of India today cannot choose their partners. If they still do and the choice violates arbitrary, extra-legal norms set down by caste panchayats, the consequence can be death. Isn't it time we built a popular movement against the medieval practice of honour killings, asks AMMU JOSEPH. A newly-wed bride and her mother-in-law were killed and the groom seriously injured by the girl's relatives in the Tarn...
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The Biggest MNREGA Scam in Rajasthan
It’s probably the biggest scam in Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Scheme (MNREGS) in Rajasthan. Its exposes the ways, this flagship scheme of the UPA govt. at the centre is being plagued by embezzlement, fraud and forgery at the grassroots. The office bearers of Jharni Panchayat under Seemalvada Panchayat Samiti in Dungarpur district made payments of more than 58 lakh rupees without a single work done. And worse, many of those...
More »How to be an ‘eligible suicide' by P Sainath
Why do governments ignore the farm suicide numbers of the National Crime Records Bureau, when it is the only authentic source on the subject? Kafka might have envied the script. In Delhi, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar informed the Rajya Sabha on May 7 that there had been just six farmers' suicides in Vidarbha since January. The same day, same time in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said that figure...
More »Will counting caste help to reduce inequality? by Nandini Sundar
More thought needs to be given to the kind of data generated and its practical implications. Yesterday when the census enumerator visited, I asked him how he felt about the current debate on counting caste in the census: “Not comfortable at all”, he said, “I don't even like asking whether someone is SC/ST or Other, leave alone what their caste is.” But, he added, “caste is an inescapable reality of...
More »Khap panchayat: signs of desperation? by Jagmati Sangwan
The number of cases in which the totally unconstitutional caste panchayats have openly defied the law of the land by issuing illegal diktats has increased manifold. In Haryana today, rapid capitalist transformation is accompanied by a regressive feudal consciousness. As education and political awareness spread among Dalits, women and backward sections, alongside there is a massive consolidation of caste (khap) panchayats in defence of the status quo. The number of cases...
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