-Down to Earth This new development will benefit the scheduled tribes residing in Banswara, Dungarpur, Pratapgarh The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister on Wednesday (April 25) approved the declaration of 227 villages in three districts of Rajasthan as Schedule Areas. The declaration of Scheduled Areas under Fifth Schedule to the Constitution of India was done by rescinding the Constitution Order 114 of February 12, 1981 and promulgating a new Constitution...

-The Indian Express The NDA government’s approach towards MGNREGA — the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act — has differed from that of the previous UPA regime in one significant way: There is greater emphasis now in the building of “individual household” assets, as opposed to “community” assets, under the scheme that provides 100 days of guaranteed wage employment annually to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do...

-The Indian Express Of 700-odd districts, merely 194 have the recommended exclusive courts for SC/ST Act cases. The Sunday Express travels to two such courts — one in Ahmedabad, set up after Una, and the other in Banda, a district with a high number of cases — to find a familiar story Over 1.44 lakh cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes and 23,408 cases of atrocities against Scheduled Tribes came for trial...

-Livemint.com Crimes against Dalit women constitute the biggest category of crimes against Dalits registered under the SC/ST Act Mumbai: A dilution of the stringent provisions of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 is going to affect Dalit women far more than men. Nearly a fifth of cases registered under the Atrocities Act are crimes against women. If one excludes the category “others” (which includes various miscellaneous crimes), crimes...

-The Indian Express The demand is a call for upholding local practices of belonging On March 12, about 50,000 farmers reached Mumbai, walking 165 km in the hope that their elected representatives would listen when they spoke. A majority of these farmers were Adivasis and one of their demands was the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) and through it, their land rights. The FRA was enacted in 2006 with the...