-Tehelka Agrarian policies are proving to be an albatross around the neck of ordinary farmers Amon Singh Kevat, 70, a small farmer in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, spent three long days in April waiting for his harvest to be picked up from an open plot that served as a mandi (procurement centre for agricultural produce). In need of money for a marriage in the family, Kevat didn’t even go home for meals. But...

-DNA Tirunelveli (TN): Faced with a series of agitations, police on Wednesday arrested eight teachers for allegedly forcing Dalit students to clean toilets in a government-aided high school at a village in the district. Backed by some political outfits, local Dalits have been staging a series of agitations in the past weeks demanding action against the teachers alleging that they were forcing the students of the school in Keelapathai Pandithankurichi near Kalakkad....

-IPS News BELLARY, India: HuligeAmma, a Dalit woman in her mid-forties, bends over a sewing machine, carefully running the needle over the hem of a shirt. Sitting nearby is Roopa, her 22-year-old daughter, who reads an amusing message on her cell phone and laughs heartily. The pair leads a simple yet contented life – they subsist on half a dollar a day, stitch their own clothes and participate in schemes to educate...

-Hindustan Times Hamirpur/ Jalaun/ Banda: The dangerous sand mafia stops at nothing. It kills, runs over men in uniform, kidnaps and, in Uttar Pradesh, even molests and rapes. Its impunity stems from the fact, as an HT investigation found, that complaints lodged with police often remain confined to files. Shivpal Singh, gram pradhan of Bansariya village, testifies to the mafia’s dominance. “In March 2014, the musclemen of a kingpin sexually assaulted two women...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: The city records more road accidents than any other metropolis in the country — 9,705 accidents left 1,247 people dead and 8,700 injured in 2013 — and police officers, experts and regular road users all agree that the proclivity of Chennai's motorists to blatantly disregard traffic rules is to blame more than anything else. The situation on the streets is so bad that commuters are usually at...