-The Hindu   It accounted for well over a fifth of the total of 14,027 deaths in 2011 With a figure of at least 14,027 in 2011, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the total number of farm suicides since 1995 has touched 2,70, 940. The State of Maharashtra shows a rise in numbers yet again, logging 3,337 against 3,141 farmers’ suicides the previous year (and 2,872 in 2009). This, despite...

-The Times of India As many as 14,004 farmers committed suicide in 2011 countrywide, the latest report of the National Crime Records Bureau has noted. The number is lower than the previous year's figure of 15,933 but the dip might be much less considering that Chhattisgarh, which recorded 1,412 farmer suicides in 2010, claimed that there were no farmer suicides at all in the state in 2011. As always, Maharashtra fared...

-AFP At least 79 people have died and 2.2 million forced to leave their homes over the last week as torrential monsoon rains triggered floods across India's northeast, officials said Monday. Assam has been worst hit with the massive Brahmaputra river breaching its banks, while extensive flooding has also hit Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. The Assam state government said 26 of 27 districts had endured flash floods as heavy rains destroyed thousands of...

The latest NCPCR survey report reveals large-scale child labour in Bt cotton production; asks stakeholders to prepare an action plan to eliminate it Forced to work for 14-hours at a stretch and even carry pesticides on their back, the plight children engaged as child labour in the Bt cotton production has often gone unnoticed, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has said in its latest survey report. To rescue...

-The Hindu The killing of the Ranvir Sena chief and the violence it triggered expose the fragile foundations of Nitish Kumar's ‘new Bihar'   The assassination of Brahmeshwar Singh alias Mukhiya, founder of Ranvir Sena, the dreaded private army of upper caste Bhumihars, raises fears of the revival of “Barbaric Bihar”. From the first major massacre of Dalits in Belchi in 1977 to the killings in Mianpur in 2000 by socially dominant castes...