-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Criticising the apathy of states and Union Territories toward prisoners' human rights in overcrowded jails, the Supreme Court warned directors general of prisons of contempt of court action if they failed to submit plans within two weeks to decongest jails, which were packed to 150% of their capacity, and in one case at 609%. Referring to overcrowding of jails, for which the SC has been unsuccessfully...

-The Hindu Business Line Kota Neelima digs into farmer suicide cases to chronicle lives often labelled as collateral damage In last November, when All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee, an umbrella organisation of around 190 farmer groups from across the country, organised a Kisan Mukti Sansad in Delhi, there was one event that moved almost everyone of thousands present there. About two dozens children of those farmers who had committed suicide in...

-The Indian Express Highly-placed sources in the state government said, “The crop diversification model is region- wise taking into account the soil health and climate conditions that will evolve in a time-bound manner.” Mumbai: The Maharashtra Government has decided to push a crop diversification model to create a better mechanism for demand and supply and higher renumeration for small and marginal farmers across state. The decision has come at a time of...

-Livemint.com Farmers continue to be vulnerable to frequent episodes of losses that neither the state nor the markets have been able to mitigate The dramatic long march to Mumbai involving thousands of distressed farmers on 12 March is a remarkable feat of peaceful protest against the state, given its apathy towards farmers’ distress as well as its failures in safeguarding tribal land rights. However, what is surprisingly missing in this poignant narrative...

-The Hindu More agricultural workers committed suicide in 2016, but the overall number of suicides in the farm sector dipped almost 10% in comparison with the previous year, according to provisional data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) that the Agriculture Ministry shared with Parliament on Tuesday. Overall, 11,370 people in the farming sector committed suicide in 2016, in comparison to 12,602 the previous year. From 2014, the NCRB has been dividing...