A recent ILO report focusses on the discrimination in employment opportunities and remuneration and wants governments to act. IN recent years, one of the predominant concerns of international organisations, especially those that have a “rights” perspective, has been the impact of the global downturn on various vulnerable sections across the world. Notwithstanding the fact that many countries have signed and ratified conventions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and are...

  Can we agree in this country on a floor of human dignity below which we will not allow any human being to fall? No child, woman or man in this land will sleep hungry. No person shall be forced to sleep under the open sky. No parent shall send their child out to work instead of to school. And no one shall die because they cannot afford the cost of...

In its wisdom, the state giveth and the state taketh away. When it acquires farmlands claiming eminent domain, there is blood on the streets. However, when it quietly bestows largesse on chosen ones, it is barely noticed. At worst there is a lawsuit. There were a dozen lengthy judgments from the Supreme Court in the past two months on land acquisition disputes — a mark of the times. But the biased...

-The Times of India   Delhi high court has sought a reply from the Delhi government and the education director on a physically challenged person's plea seeking amendment in the RTE Act to include a quota for the children of such people. HC issued notices to the authorities concerned on a petition filed by one Hilal Haider praying that there were deficiencies in the RTE Act that needed clarification. On his...

The move to divide dalits into sub-groups seems headed for cold storage, amid indications that the Centre is apprehensive of the political consequences of the proposal which has polarized the volatile community along sub-castes. The social justice ministry has recalled its earlier proposal to amend the Constitution to facilitate division of the SC list as per wishes of some states. It will now seek the views of states on the entire...