-Frontline.in Magsaysay Award winning activist and national president of the Safai Karmachari Andolan Bezwada Wilson is a co-petitioner with Major General (Retd) S.G. Vombatkere in a Supreme Court case relating to the Aadhaar project. He raises an important concern about the impact of Aadhaar on people born into oppressed castes, particularly safai karmacharis, or manual scavengers. Excerpts from an interview he gave Frontline: * What is your opinion on Aadhaar? There is no...

-The New Indian Express BENGALURU: Sixty manual scavengers have died over the last 10 years while at work. The families of 23 victims were paid compensation ranging between `5 lakh and `10 lakh while 37 families are yet to be compensated, according to data available with the Social Welfare Department. But the reality is that many cases either go unreported or are considered as unnatural deaths and booked under various Acts. The Prohibition...

-Outlook A crusader for Dalit rights, Bezwada Wilson, on reclaiming for the Dalits a life of human dignity in a structurally apathetic society. On many occasions, the Ramon Magsaysay Award has been bestowed on individuals of various ilks and ideological persuasions. For the first time, perhaps, it speaks to an issue that touches the lives of millions of people because an award for Bezwada Wilson (50) is an international acknowledgement of the...

-The Hindu Court says the practice is a disgrace for the Capital; ‘more shocking that a post-graduate is engaged in the odd job’ The Delhi High Court was left “shocked and disquieted” on Wednesday when a report furnished by the Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) showed that thousands of people, including a post-graduate, were working as manual scavengers in the national Capital. Factual position The factual position revealed before a Bench headed by...

-BBC Four years ago, a group of upper-caste men arrived at Mehul Vinodbhai Kabira's modest two-room home in Gujarat and threatened to burn it down. Bhayla is a nondescript village of around 450 low slung brick-and-cement homes straddling a highway dotted by pharmaceutical, engineering and bio-tech factories. Most of the homes in this dense village are owned by land-owning upper castes, but around 70 belong to Dalits (formerly known as untouchables) like Mr...