-The Hindu Ordinance on rape a knee-jerk reaction, says activists Death penalty for rape of girls upto 12 years will deter the victim and their families from reporting such crimes instead of acting as a deterrent for criminals, said activists who slammed the government for its “knee-jerk reaction” in bringing an ordinance on the issue. “In cases of child sexual assaults we know that most of these crimes are committed by people...

-Firstpost.com In the course of debates on gender-based violence, one aspect that is often hotly discussed is the role of the media in reporting such crimes. While media reporting can play a part in ensuring justice in some cases, it can also at times put the victim or her family at risk, or end up further stigmatising her. For this reason, the media is expected to comply with an array of laws...

-NDTV NDTV scanned nearly 1,300 articles and cross-referenced this with databases. We went through 1,000 recent tweets of politicians and public figures. New Delhi: The use of hateful and divisive language by high-ranking politicians has increased almost 500% in the past four years, an NDTV data collection exercise has found. The premise of the exercise was simple: it seems not a day, or a week goes by without some senior politician -...

-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 Telegraph New Delhi: Kerala has become the first state to petition the Supreme Court for a review of its judgment that has been accused of "diluting" the SC/ST Atrocities Act by ruling against automatic arrests and allowing anticipatory bail. The Centre has already sought a review and recall of the March 20 judgment, which has triggered widespread protests and prompted a nationwide shutdown by Dalits on April 2 during which at...