The Centre's latest piece-meal approach to child labour is likely to be as ineffective as the previous failed schemes and plans. Unless the underlying causes of child labour are addressed, and the rights of children are properly secured, India will remain prone to wide-spread child labour, writes Ingrid Srinath.

The new government's candour that meaningful reforms must permeate into the institutions beyond the budgetary process itself is a start. The India Together editorial.

A largely oral system for transfering knowledge has been shaken by the advent of modern methods of learning, and by great changes in Indian society. But there are positive developments too; learning music is now more democratic than in the past. Varupi Jain speaks to noted practitioners who are alert to this transformation.

Are they members of a Church without caste hierarchy, or are they still Dalits, with all that it implies in Hinduism? Dalit Christians find that despite being a numerical majority in the faith in India, the promise of equality is as distant as before. They're taking their protests to Parliament this winter, reports Padmalatha Ravi.

Both legalisation and decriminalisation talk about protecting prostitutes from police harassment, as well as guarding their right of choice. But they have so far failed to address the issue of vulnerability of the women in the sex trade. Asha Ramesh notes different voices in the debate over what the legal stance towards prostitution should be.

A number of factors have combined to keep farmers in the country growing wheat and rice, instead of fruits and vegetables which would fetch much higher returns, writes Richa Govil.

The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 introduced in the parliament proposes a ban on commercial surrogacy. Shoma Chatterji finds out if this will help in checking exploitation of women.

In Sriramagiri panchayat, a few Kondareddi settlements want nothing to do with the relief and rehabilitation package for those who would be displaced by the Polavaram dam. Fighting off underhand tactics by officials, they are determined to remain in their homes, amidst their culture and its history. R Uma Maheshwari reports.

55 years after Independence, the people, the prime minister, opposition leaders, the Election Commission and the Supreme Court are all crying, day after day, for clean politics. Former High Commissioner to South Africa L C Jain connects the past with the present.

One year ago, Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, the newly elected Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh had taken the World Bank heads on by calling its policy 'an anti-people condition for lending.' But his government has recently negotiated a loan of Rs 7,510 crores from the bank. Sudhirendar Sharma says Reddy is taking the legacy of his predecessor forward.

It is because his own Party stopped taking Gandhi seriously that most young people in India grow up thinking of him as a pious crank, used only as a meaningless icon, writes Madhu Purnima Kishwar.

"Like thousands of other ordinary Indians I had rushed to Gujarat to lend a helping hand. And in the two weeks spent there I got to see up close, many dimensions of our innate, if imperfect, humanity." Venu Madhav Govindu remembers a relief camp he called home five years ago.

Last month, women's groups were engaged in a vigorous debate with the National Commission on Women (NCW) about a bill on sexual harassment, says Kalpana Sharma.

Kalpana Sharma reflects on the occasion of the International Fortnight Protesting Violence Against Women and Girls, being observed from November 25 to December 10.

Kalpana Sharma notes the presence - and absence - of women at the World Social Forum in Mumbai.

The search for a viable national alternative to the Congress goes back more than fifty years, But India is too large, and too unwieldy, to be represented by two parties alone, or even, as it now seems, by two coalitions each dominated by a single party, says Ramachandra Guha.

Given the lack of any news about dowry deaths, dowry violence or dowry demands, one would have thought that the problem had disappeared. Far from it. In fact, it has become far more entrenched and taken new forms. Dowry is a symptom of a deeper disease that relates to how our society values women, writes Kalpana Sharma.

Although much amended and bent, the Constitution of India is still a charter for a democratic republic of men and women. But a recent experience made me realise that we are in danger of ceding highly resonant words to the men on our right, writes Ramachandra Guha.

Would this Lokpal Bill have prevented the 2G scam, CWG scam, the NTRO scam, the CVC appointment or any of the recent embarrassments? The answer is a resounding no!, says Rajeev Chandrasekhar.

Two-time national award winner, veteran journalist Shoma A Chatterji explains with disarming honesty why, despite being deeply concerned over the prevailing socio-cultural milieu in the country, she would not like to blindly follow her celebrated co-awardees in returning the awards.

The beating of media persons at Kozhikode's airport had its fallout all over Kerala. It has pitted the media against the state government. Several issues concerning rights and privacy need to be discussed, including some of the media’s own failings says N P Chekkutty.

Morality TV aur Loving Jehad: Ek Manohar Kahani, says its director Paromita Vohra, shows the accepted language of television news at its worst, justifying violence in the name of righteous indignation. Shoma Chatterji reviews the film.

Debaranjan Sarangi, a documentary film maker, writer and human rights activist was arrested recently in Kashipur, Odisha. Shoma Chatterji writes about Sarangi's arrest, his activism and his films which deal with Adivasis and their struggles.

The negative terms of trade against agriculture have to be turned around if the country is keen to emerge from the hunger and poverty trap, says Devinder Sharma.
Q&A on the Minimum Support Pricing policy

For the sixth time in a row, the trade ministers of the developing world have been duped to believe that agricultural trade is for development. Despite making loud noises and fuming over injustice, the faulty framework that underlies the WTO remains very much in place, says Devinder Sharma.

Amidst this anomalous global pandemic, as the whole world wars against a sinuously strong, mutating virus what has metamorphosed is the human spirit. Whether it is a housewife who files her first writ petition to...

NCP today slammed chief minister Devendra Fadnavis for not paying homage to the martyrs of 26/11 terror attacks by visiting the memorial built for them.

"Cause we are living in a material world and I am a material girl" crooned Madonna in the Eighties. Fast forward to the 21st century, and we all know there is more to a marriage than love. Today's woman has become assertive about more than her rights. She also makes known her likes and dislikes with the result that society labels her as materialistic.

The typical family drama in the TV soap or the Bollywood flick revolves around weddings and property disputes.

Mota Samadhiyala village, in Una block in Gujarat’s Gir-Somnath district, has now become a place-name for social terror. The video that went viral a few weeks ago, of cow-protection vigilantes beating seven Dalit men for skinning a dead cow, was recorded and spread by the gau rakshaks themselves.

नई द‍िल्‍ली: कोराना वायरस संक्रमण के चलते लॉकडाउन की स्थिति है। ऐसे में सिर्फ जरूरत के सामना की बिक्री की ही छूट थी। अब सरकार ने लॉकडाउन में कुछ राहत दी है जिसके बाद भारत मे स्मार्टफोन की बिक्री भी शुरू

Punjab's cabinet ministers locked horns with senior bureaucrats over imposition of Covid tax and overall dipping revenue of the state excise department at a meeting to discuss changes in the excise policy on Saturday.

Spain's health ministry reported 179 new confirmed deaths on Saturday, increasing the death toll to 26,478.

The distortions in the US president's statements emerged over the past week alongside his relentless bragging about the US testing system, which failed in the crucial early weeks and remains globally subpar.

Tesla boss Elon Musk and his partner Claire Grimes Boucher welcomed their first baby on May 4 and baffled everyone with the choice of the name.

While we are already facing an unprecedented situation with the outbreak of Covid 19 and to overcome it lockdown has been in place for quite a while now, the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Tritiya that falls on April 26, 2020 can

Vardhan said the doubling time of coronavirus infection cases in the country for the last three days has been about 11 days and 9.9 days for the last seven days.

Doctors at the government-run ESIC Hospital here committed a "mistake" by not testing samples of a 16-year-old girl, who later died of Covid-19, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Saturday.

Ministry of Science and Technology's Department of Biotechnology (DBT) Dr Renu Swarup says that based on the latest WHO consensus, Covid-19 as a 'lab release' theory is likely to be false.

Justice S C Gupte in an order on Friday said the police administration must not obstruct or stop such vehicles.

Sixteen migrant workers sleeping on the rail tracks were crushed to death by a goods train in Maharashtra's Aurangabad district on Friday morning.

'People are falling ill while walking. Some have died. Even then their walking hasn't stopped,' the Rajya Sabha member further said.

The tennis season was suspended in early March due to the Covid-19 outbreak, and the hiatus will continue at least until mid-July with many countries in lockdown to contain the virus.

Priyanka Chopra to Sara Ali Khan, celebrities from the film industry poured in loving messages on the occasion of Mother's Day 2020.

Mother's Day: Mother should get their daily dose of essential nutrients. Breastfeeding moms should stay hydrated. Avoid smoking and alcohol and don't skip your meals.

New Delhi, May 02: With several countries across the world has called for a complete or partial lockdowns in an attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus, there are several other countries that did not opt for the lockdown.

Seoul, May 04: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un did not undergo surgery or any other medical procedure, a South Korean official said on Sunday, amid speculation about his health that continues to linger even after he reappeared publicly in recent