-Hindustan Times The realities of India’s socio-economic situation are often cited as the reason for some of our more retrograde laws. The one on child labour is a case in point. The Union Cabinet has increased penalties for offenders but at the same time allowed children below 14 to work in select family businesses after school hours. The caveat is that such businesses cannot be hazardous but should be things like entertainment and...

-The Tribune Grains Of Discontent: The damage to wheat crop due to untimely rain and hailstorm, followed by delayed payments, this rabi season has further stressed Punjab’s farmers. While the cost of farm inputs has risen manifold over the past few years, the profit margin is on a constant decline, thus making farming unviable. Unable to bear losses, several farmers have committed suicide in recent past As the day breaks, he enters...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked the ministries of social justice and health and family welfare to respond to a plea to set up homes for senior citizens across the country because "over-ambitious" children were increasingly neglecting their aged parents. Justices Madan B. Lokur and U.U. Lalit, however, refrained from issuing notices to the Centre, states and Union territories on three other pleas: a national commission for senior citizens,...

-The Hindu Study says 10 per cent of Rajasthan's population migrates seasonally in search of work Jaipur: As many as 5.79 million people in Rajasthan, or 10 per cent of the State's population, migrates seasonally in search of employment, says a new study on migration and labour. Approximately 4.38 million households thus send a person or more to other States in search of work seasonally, it adds. The number of migrants per household...

-The Week Shambhu Kumar, 8, quite liked his job as a domestic help in a small town in Assam. He had to mind two children nearly his age, keep an eye on the ducks and be available for chores all day. It wasn't too hard, and he was well fed, too, though he missed his grandmother, a tea garden labourer. One day, some women from the state education department came to the...