Many degrees of hopelessness in India’s villages
The picture of rural Indian life today that emerges from what is probably the world’s largest study ever of household deprivation is sobering and sombre.
Is the govt threatening to dismantle National Food Security Act?
It is troubling that the Centre has displayed a casual disregard for laws and court rulings that create a framework of statutory social rights for protecting the vulnerable.
India has become a more unequal society than any other time in its recent history
Two most formidable challenges that will engage the peoples and governments of all countries on the planet during the 21st century will be the ways in which they handle inequality and deal with diversity. Historically, India has culturally sanctioned inequalities of gender, caste and class more than any other ancient civilisation.
IMA needs to introspect on state of private medical services
School textbooks in recent decades have frequently become battlegrounds for ideological contestation in India. Most textbook wars are to advance majoritarian perspectives on history and culture.
Child ‘camp coolies’ in Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of India’s most industrialized states. But its hidden face is the employment of several hundred thousand impoverished children and adolescents—mostly girls but also some boys—in its spinning mills.
Excerpt: Looking Away by Harsh Mander
Jay Mazoomdar recounts a telling conversation he had with three young men in Varanasi after the elections. ‘“More than Muslims here, now Pakistan and China will be scared,” one of them said disarmingly.
For an idealistic young civil servant it’s a lonely battle
The country is both riveted and moved by the extraordinary outpouring of public support, solidarity and goodwill by ordinary people for young IAS officer DK Ravi, found hanging from the ceiling fan in his official apartment.
Amendments in Juvenile Justice Act prevents children’s reform
Adult India is suddenly afraid of its children. This fear has resulted in wide support within the Parliament and outside for amendments to the law to treat children between 16 and 18 years like adult criminals when charged with grave crimes.
AAP has got the chance to run authentically responsible govt
An audacious sense of hope is surging through the soft spring sunshine in Delhi, following the unprecedented victory of AAP in the recent polls. That people of every class, caste, religious community, age-group and gender joined hands to place their futures in the hands of a fledgling and still mostly untested political formation, represents a resounding endorsement of a new style of politics, as much as a longing for a new kind of governance.
A pilgrimage to Venice: The magic and mysteries of the historical city and the best of world cinema
I remember the film was Vittoria de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves. I still recall that the impact it had on me, akin to a sudden shaft of sunlight engulfing my heart. I was captivated, enchanted by evidence of what art could accomplish.