-TheWire.in To oppose the forest department’s plan to limit open grazing, the pastoral community is formally pursuing their collective land rights through the Forest Rights Act. The sun has not yet decided to rise. It’s pitch black out but a group of Maldharis has already assembled for the last session of this year’s milking competition. Their massive buffalos are majestically adorned with intricate garlands and colourful necklaces. The panch (group of five...

-Deccan Herald An NGO on Monday approached the Supreme Court against the Union government’s decision to appoint Gujarat-cadre IPS officer Rakesh Asthana as acting director of the CBI. New Delhi: ‘Common Cause’, the NGO through advocate Prashant Bhushan contended that the government in “deliberate dereliction” did not convene meeting of the Collegium comprising the prime minister as chairperson and Leader of OppoSITion and the Chief Justice of India as members to select...

-Scroll.in Buyers are cutting back on consumption, traders are losing margins, and farmers are paying their workers in kind. At first glance, it looks like any other day at the mandi in Bettiah. Trucks stand next to the concrete arch that leads into the fruit and vegetable market in this small town in northern Bihar. Inside the mandi samiti, as the precinct is called, hawkers SIT with baskets bursting with vegetables. The shops...

-AlJazeera.com For girls and women from the Perna caste, entering the sex trade is a normal next step after marriage and childbirth. New Delhi: When SITa* comes home in the morning, her husband is usually still asleep. She has worked through the night, selling sex on the highways tracing Delhi's periphery, but she will bathe, cook breakfast, and get the children ready for school before getting some rest herself. Here, in a tumble-down...

-The Hindu Delay in monsoon has compounded the problems of farm labourers from Bahour commune Puducherry: The double whammy of demonetisation and delay in monsoon has crippled the rural population of Puducherry as they struggle to make their ends meet. The demonetisation move has brought the construction activity across the rural areas to a standstill, throwing thousands out of jobs and without money. The construction SITes in rural areas of Bahour, Villianur, Mannadipet...