The proposed criminalisation of consensual sex between youngsters in the 16-18 age group is seen as regressive and in denial of social realities. THE minimum age for consensual sex has been raised from 16 to 18 in the amended Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Bill, 2011, recently approved by the Union Cabinet. If approved by Parliament, this will make sexual activity with a person below 18 a criminal offence,...

-The Times of India Encouraged by usage of the provisions of the Right to Information Act, the government has decided to set up a state-of-the-art call centre and an interactive website to facilitate easy exchange of information related to the transparency law to citizens. The project was envisaged after taking insights from a government study which highlighted inconvenience faced by citizens in exercising their rights to information. According to a department of personnel...

It will again divide the people, says CPI(M) general secretary Stating that the proposed Food Security Bill is “inadequate,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said on Sunday that the Left parties will stage an agitation pressing for the inclusion of everyone, irrespective of whether they are classified as below or above the poverty line. Speaking at a public rally on the outskirts of the city, he said that...

With an eye to mainstreaming sustainability, rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has reached out to the United Nations Development Programme to suggest ways for 'greening' rural development schemes and programmes. "We are spending Rs 99,000 crore this year on rural development programmes and it would be a shame if we don't mainstream green objectives in these programmes. Rural development programmes offer a huge opportunity to deal with green concerns and challenges...

There is a complicated relationship between abortion as such and the selective abortion of female foetuses. This dilemma is one with which the women’s movement in India has been grappling since the late 1980s. In my discussion of this dilemma, I would like to move away completely from Satyamev Jayate, the television programme, (on which a discussion has been initiated by Shohini Ghosh on kafila.org). In any case, there the...