India's Supreme Court has ordered circuses to stop employing children and instructed the government to rescue and rehabilitate working minors. Until a recently passed amendment, circuses were largely exempt from India's Child Labour Act which bans the employment of children under 14. But circus owners ignored the ruling and the court is now enforcing the ban. Circus professionals criticised the law, saying training from a young age is crucial for developing skills. "One can...

Only around 6% of cases filed against doctors involved in sex-selection practices in the 17 states, which have the most skewed sex ratio, have ended up in convictions till date. According to Union health ministry's latest data — prepared for a crucial meeting of health secretaries of the 17 states on Wednesday — a total of 805 cases have been filed in court against doctors till March 31, ever since the...

Directs Centre to frame rehabilitation scheme for rescued children ‘Issue suitable notifications within two months to prohibit employment of children in circuses' Instances of children being forcefully detained, sometimes under extreme inhuman conditions The Supreme Court on Monday banned the employment of children in circuses and directed the Union government to take immediate steps to rescue those engaged in such employment. A Bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and A.K. Patnaik, passing orders on a...

A former bureaucrat has said that most business houses "maintain" MPs to influence government policies or decision making in their favour. "Some of the large industrial houses also fund politicians who are in the Opposition as a hedge to ensure that any decision that may be given in their favour is not opposed by them. They also treat such funding as a long term investment," writes former Economic Intelligence Bureau director...

Civil rights activist Dr Binayak Sen is set to be released from a jail in Raipur today. Sen's release comes after the Supreme Court granted him bail last week, striking down charges of sedition levelled against him by the Chhattisgarh government. He had been accused of colluding with Naxalites and sentenced to life imprisonment on charges of sedition. The court had observed that there was no evidence against Sen and that no case...