-Press release by Common Cause dated 19th April, 2021 New Delhi: There are silences and gaps in the law that the questionable elements in the police take advantage of and undermine the rule of law, said Justice Madan B Lokur, former Justice of the Supreme Court of India. Delivering the Keynote Address on ‘Is the Rule of Law Backsliding in India?’ at the launch of the Status of Policing in India Report...

-TheWire.in From books being banned to students and faculty facing criminal charges and being jailed, the past few years have been especially tough on India's universities. These tables – under six broad heads but disaggregated to record the separate experiences of faculty and students – are an updated, expanded version of the annexures first prepared in June 2020 by Nandini Sundar and Gowhar Fazli as part of a status report in response...

The National Food Security Act 2013 guarantees maternity benefit to the tune of Rs. 6,000/- per child by the Central Government for pregnant women and lactating mothers, barring those who are already availing such benefits while being in regular employment with the Central Government or State Governments or Public Sector Undertakings or under other laws. The NFSA 2013 also legally guarantees free meals for every pregnant woman and lactating mother...

-The Indian Express Have people been denied foodgrains due to non-possession of an Aadhaar ID or because their Aadhaar biometric details didn't match? Here's data from a Lokniti-CSDS study The Supreme Court recently asked the Centre to respond to allegations made in a PIL by a Dalit woman from Jharkhand that 3 crore ration cards have been cancelled in the country because of the insistence on Aadhaar linkage and biometric authentication, and...

-Down to Earth Among marginalised groups, indebtedness was highest in Muslim-majority and Scheduled Caste-majority hamlets Indebtedness became more acute in around 70 per cent hamlets Surveyed in 75 Indian districts during October-December 2020, according to a study on the effects of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and lockdowns. The figure was 76 per cent in the first few months following last year’s lockdown. There was a slight dip in the indebtedness of...