A Delhi court Tuesday ordered deployment of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) at Mirchpur village in Haryana to protect the witnesses till they record their testimonies in the case relating to an attack on Dalits there in 2010, which led to the death of two community members. Special Judge (Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribal Act) Kamini Lau said: 'I now direct that CRPF deployment at village Mirchpur should be made preferably near the...

Urgent and sustained efforts needed to curb female foeticide were discussed at a two-day workshop on “female foeticide: rights of the girl child, problems and solutions,” held at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) here on Friday and Saturday. The workshop was organised to mark the National Girl Child Week from January 24 to 31. “The sex ratio in the country is decreasing at an alarming rate. The educated, upper classes,...

Nearly a dozen Dalit families have left this village in the last 15 days as last year's violence in Mirchpur has come back to haunt them. It was here that a 70-year-old and his physically-challenged daughter were killed in an attack by the dominant Jat community. The fear of violence from Jats, who have over the past 12 days staged protests demanding the release of those arrested for the incident in...

Girl child survival is skewedeven in those areas of northern India having limited access topublic health facilities and modern ultrasound technology asfamilies ''neglect'' them to ensure there are few survivors,says a new study. Since families can not know the sex of the foetus dueto lack of technology, girls born in these areas facesystematic healthcare neglect, specially in poorer communitiesto ''dispose them off'', says the study. Allowing the umbilical cord of the newly...

A Supreme Court judgment projects the historical thesis that India is largely a country of old immigrants and that pre-Dravidian aborigines, ancestors of the present Adivasis, rather than Dravidians, were the original inhabitants of India. If North America is predominantly made up of new immigrants, India is largely a country of old immigrants, which explains its tremendous diversity. It follows that tolerance and equal respect for all communities and sects are...