-Hindustan Times Birhor Tola (Ranchi): A 45-year-old tribal villager, Paklu Birhor, and his companions forage a forest in the Jonha valley, barely 40km from the Jharkhand capital, every day at the crack of dawn for wild edible roots and herbs. On a lucky day, they return home with game — rabbit, monkey, boar or birds. They count themselves fortunate if they stumble upon the carcass of a wild or domestic animal. These...

-Frontline   Swagata Raha, a senior legal researcher (Consultant) at the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, said the Juvenile Justice Bill, 2015, “incorrectly assumes that children are competent to stand trial as adults”. Currently pursuing Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford, Swagata Raha worked extensively on the campaign against the Juvenile Justice Bill and has written extensively...

-The Indian Express It (odd-even policy) is not our cup of tea. But any step taken to decrease the number of vehicles on the road is welcome. Delhi: The Delhi government’s odd-even pollution-control plan was not everyone’s “cup of tea”, but it was a move in the right direction, chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Environmental Pollution Control Authority (EPCA) Bhure Lal said Tuesday. “It (odd-even policy) is not our cup of tea....

-Down to Earth The rural development ministry had recently demanded an additional allocation of Rs 5,000 crore to maintain the momentum of MGNREGA Civil society has supported the demand made by the Union Ministry of Rural Development to the Ministry of Finance to provide Rs 5,000 crore for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Generation Scheme (MGNREGS). Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), the United Progressive Alliance’s employment generation flagship scheme,...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Nearly 18 million villagers registered under the rural job scheme face the prospect of toiling without wages as funds have dried up amid a drought-triggered surge in demand for work. Twelve states have run up "negative balances", MEAning workers' payments are due, while the rest have exhausted 95 per cent of the funds released to them so far, according to the rural development ministry, which runs the Mahatma...