A MARRIAGE hall in Kolkata is packed with 1200 of India’s poorest citizens. They have trekked here from all over West Bengal, from remote forests and dingy alleyways, from Howrah, East Midnapore, South 24 Parganas. They have come because there is a story to tell, a brutal story that may otherwise never be told. Finally, there are people willing to hear. These people may never bring justice; may never be...

Last summer, about 150 families of Kachan village in Jharkhand’s Palamu district decided to pool funds to repair their only community tube well. A drought, the worst in many years, had dried up two ponds; there were no wells around; and the tube well had been dysfunctional for a year. It took a lot of hardship and one whole month for them to put together what the mechanic had asked...

A wretched, forsaken corner of the world’s biggest democracy SURROUNDED by troops, the suspected militant saw the vehicle already waiting to take his corpse to the morgue. He expected to die, like many others, in an “Encounter” with the security forces. In jail he told a human-rights activist—himself held on charges of waging war against the state and tortured with electric shocks—that he probably owed his life to a piece of...

The study was conducted in six States and is based on interviews of over 51,000 individuals  Findings also underscore the limited awareness on most sexual and reproductive matters Leading sources of information on sexual matters were friends and the media Less than one in three women know that a condom can be used just once, and just one in six know that a condom cannot disappear into a woman’s body. These are...

The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) and the People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) will stage a dharna in Lucknow and Allahabad on Saturday (February 13) to demand the release of human rights activist and organising secretary of PUCL, Seema Azad. Ms. Azad and her husband, Vishwa Vijay were picked up by the Uttar Pradesh police from the Allahabad railway station on February 6 when they returned from New...