-The Times of India After spending 25 days behind bars on charges of raping her live-in girlfriend, athlete Pinki Pramanik was granted bail on Tuesday. The judge virtually exonerated the Asiad gold medallist by saying that preliminary medical Reports make it clear Pinki is "not capable of committing rape".  There was much drama both inside the courtroom and outside. Athlete and former CPM MP Jyotirmoyee Sikdar led a huge crowd at the...

Census 2011 data bring into the open Maharashtra’s terrible record in sex-selective abortions. In early June, Vijaymala Patekar, a mother of four girls, haemorrhaged to death at a hospital in Parli, Beed district, Maharashtra. She was reportedly in her second trimester of pregnancy. Her family had allegedly forced her to abort the foetus when they learnt it was a girl child. Sudam Munde, the doctor who performed the procedure, fled Parli but...

-The Hindustan Times Dalits of Maha Singh Wala village in Moonak subdivision of Sangrur district have been rendered jobless due to their social boycott by upper-caste landlords. Following a dispute over daily wages, a kangaroo court of village landlords had issued the diktat a month ago. All Dalits working as farm labourers or domestic help have been sacked. The supply of milk and other essential commodities has been disrupted, forcing them to...

-The Hindu A new website that will keep track of how far the RTE Act is being implemented RTE Forum, the 10,000 strong NGO and civil society platform working for the implementation of the RTE Act, has finally launched its website. As part of the RTE Forum’s agenda of formalising its structure, the website aims at strengthening the forum's existing state chapters and forming new ones. Mr. Ambarish Rai, RTE Forum National...

-The Hindu   States advised to give preference to drinking water and irrigation and enhance groundwater use. An alarming depletion in the water levels (at 57 per cent of last year’s storage) of important reservoirs, owing to the delayed and weak southwest monsoon, has prompted the Central government to issue an advisory to the States on Monday to make “judicious and regulated” releases. The States have been advised to give preference to drinking water...