Public outrage at the sentencing of physician and rights activist Binayak Sen continued on Tuesday, with philosopher Noam Chomsky, historian Romila Thapar and 80 others, including leading academics, writers and journalists, signing a joint statement condemning the “unbelievable savagery” of the sentence. Urging his immediate release as well as the early hearing of his appeal “with enlightened reason” by the higher judiciary, the statement said: “The damage done by this shocking...

Activists, intellectuals, students and academicians gathered at Jantar Mantar earlier this week in protest against the life imprisonment sentence pronounced by a Chhattisgarh court for Human Rights activist Binayak Sen. The protest was organised by the All-India Students' Association, People's Union for Civil Liberties and All-India Progressive Women's Association and several other groups and individuals as part of a nation-wide protest against the “unjust conviction” of Dr. Sen. A large number...

A maid hired from a tribal zone without the panchayat’s sanction could bring a legal case of human trafficking if amendments planned to a poorly enforced law are carried through. The changes are proposed in the Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (Pesa), which aims to give tribal communities in 94 districts greater powers over land and resources. The zones are in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand,...

Food prices globally are rising to dangerous levels. There is talk of a coming crisis, like the ones that produced riots around the world in 2008 and 1974. Many of the ingredients of a disaster are present, but governments can stop the problem before it causes too much damage. A warning sign is the price of traded staples like wheat, corn and rice. Prices shot up in 2010, soaring 26...

Is Madhya Pradesh the epicentre of malnutrition deaths? Recently, villages in the State’s Shivpuri district witnessed children of Sahariya tribe falling victims of malnutrition. Their names, according to the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC): Parant, Rajveer, Rajkumari and Sanni and they were all aged 3 years or below. The AHRC cautions that many more children like Ashiq, Kuldeep, Pawan and Malti from the same tribe are battling death due to...