-Hindustan Times Those still in custody in the case include Anand Teltumbde, Hany Babu, Shoma Sen, Jyoti Jagtap, Ramesh Gaichor, Sagar Gorkhe, Sudhir Dhawale, Mahesh Raut, Arun Ferreira, Surendra Gadling, Sudha Bharadwaj, Gautam Navlakha, Rona Wilson, and Vernon Gonsalves Over 100 academics, activists, and writers issued a statement on Tuesday demanding immediate and unconditional release of all those arrested in connection with the violence at Maharashtra’s Bhima Koregaon in 2018 and the...

-Press release from NREGA Sangharsh Morcha For the past five days, hundreds of National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) workers and their supporters from across the country have gathered at Jantar Mantar to demand the implementation of the employment guarantee act in letter and spirit. They are demanding a substantial increase in the NREGA wages, timely payment of wages, implementation of local plans, expansion of existing entitlements and adequate budget for...

-Livemint.com Sudha Bharadwaj fights for labour rights and is against land acquisition When Sudha Bharadwaj travels in Chhattisgarh, almost everyone recognizes her. She is what the locals would call a “woman of the people”. Bharadwaj, 54, is tall, with an unassuming demeanour. She has been living in the state for 29 years now, working as a trade unionist, a civil rights activist against land acquisition, and, more recently, as a lawyer. “If...

-Livemint.com They believe their efforts are more about social justice than philanthropy, but these young lawyer collectives are giving back to society by choosing to represent those with little or no legal recourse When Isha Khandelwal, 25, filed a discharge application for her client before the Juvenile Justice Board in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar district, she told the court staff that there were a few corrections in the previously submitted plea. A member...

-The Hindu Dantewada (Chhattisgarh): Of the six tribal women of Shamsetti village in Sukma district of Chhattisgarh who in 2009 gave statements in court that they had been gang-raped by Salwa Judum functionaries, three have now withdrawn their charges. Three key witnesses — family members of the women — have also retracted their statements. Some lawyers in Dantewada familiar with the case say that the women are withdrawing due to “severe pressure”...