-The Hindustan Times   Nine years after the path-breaking documentary War and Peace, Anand Patwardhan, one of India's controversial filmmakers, is back with a documentary on Dalit music and activism - Jai Bhim Comrade. Last week, his film was awarded the Ram Bahadur Trophy for the Best Film at the Film Southasia 2011 festival held at Kathmandu. Fourteen years in the making, the three-hour-and-20 minute-long film explores the history of Dalit activism...

-The Hindustan Times   After poverty line, the government and the civil society may converge on bringing crores of workers enrolled under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) under the minimum wages law. The government had earlier rejected demand by civil society members and Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council of paying wages to MGNREGA workers as per notified minimum wages of states. The reason given was that states could hike minimum...

-The Hindustan Times   A year after its implementation, students and parents from the economically weaker sections of society are still finding it tough to use the Right to Education Act (RTE) effectively. Instances of alleged expulsion, mental harassment and misbehaviour have been reported by students and parents from different corners of the city against some private un-aided schools. In one incident, a Class III student, Sidhartha (name changed), an economically weaker section...

Muslims in general may be opposed to the creation of a separate Telangana state but analysis of region-wise employment figures for Andhra Pradesh shows that in the 10 districts of Telangana region, Muslims and OBCs have suffered the highest loss of Rs 41.50 in rural per capita income between 1993-94 and 2004-05.  On the higher education front, the community remains the most backward in urban areas, with the absolute change being...

Four days after the riots that killed four in Rudrapur, the exodus hasn’t stopped. Over the six hours during which curfew was relaxed on Wednesday and Thursday, hundreds left the town. Just before the curfew was lifted on Thursday evening, the town celebrated Dussehra. The event was more ritualistic than celebratory. The three effigies were burnt down, and the Mahatma Gandhi ground emptied in a matter of minutes. There is no history...