-The Hindu     To be able to deliver appropriate legal services to the rural and tribal communities, we need an alternative delivery system with a different model of legal service providers Delivery of legal services to the rich and the corporate class is organised not through individual lawyers but through a series of networked law firms. These firms employ hundreds of lawyers and domain experts all over the country to provide highly specialised...

-The Indian Express New Delhi: It's exactly a year since the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) came into force on Children's Day. But child rights activists and lawyers say what was envisaged as a stringent law to bring down cases of child abuse still has teething problems. Doctors say there are no guidelines listing out the necessary steps that doctors need to take while examining child-victims. A doctor at the...

-The Hindu Landed communities in Haryana thwarting women's rights to inheritance Jhajjar (Haryana): Hawa Singh is an 80-year-old, rheumy patriarch with a failing voice that one has to strain to hear. But mention his two daughters and their two year old legal battle with him to claim their share of the ancestral property and fire flashes inhis eyes and the voice acquires strength. "There is no question of giving ancestral land to...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Much work remains to be done if the new Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act has to mark a meaningful shift for India's adivasi communities. Chitrangada Choudhury (chitrangada@csds.in) Chitrangada Choudhury (chitrangada@csds.in) is a multimedia journalist and researcher, and currently with the Publics and Policies program at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi. Among the worst excesses committed in India's six decade-old democracy, the forcible displacment...

-Kafila.org A Preliminary Citizens' Report September 20, 2013 A. On September 17-18, 2013, an 11 member team consisting of both independent activists as well as activists affiliated with 5 organizations based in Lucknow, Chitrakoot, Muzaffarnagar and Delhi visited relief camps in two affected districts of Muzaffarnagar (3 Relief Camps - Madrasa camp at Bassi Kalan, Madrasa camp at Tawli and camp at Haji Aala's house, Shahpur) and Shamli (3 Relief Camps -...