Triple oppression of dalit women panchayat members
Affirmative action might get dalit women into panchayats, but caste compounds the gender discrimination they face and stymies real empowerment, says Subhash Gatade 20 years after panchayati raj in India
Impunity under AFSPA
The impunity under AFSPA of law-enforcement personnel guilty of sexual offences against women is most pronounced in the Northeast, writes KS Subramanian
Schools of discrimination
The removal of a dalit cook from the anganwadi in Majure village, Karnataka, indicates that top-down measures to address caste discrimination are changing little on the ground
The ashes of Dharmapuri
The dalits whose homes were attacked by dominant castes in Dharmapuri district on November 7 would do well to invoke the special provisions of the Prevention of Atrocities Act in pursuing justice, as the dalits of Tsundur, Andhra Pradesh, did over a 20-year struggle, writes Subhash Gatade
Crime and punishment
A nation consumed by outrage and a sense of retribution easily confuses punishment and revenge, justice and vendetta, says the PUCL in a statement following the hanging of Ajmal Kasab and asking for a rethink on the death penalty
Can we afford to be culturally blind?
India's state and market institutions promote only a passive respect for religious and cultural co-existence. Ethnic sensitisation stops at caste-based affirmative action. What are the perils of the absence of institutional diversity-education in a country as heterogeneous as India?
Assam violence: Land, identity and immigration
The conflicts in and around the Northeast have little to do with religion and everything to do with land and identity, writes Walter Fernandes, detailing the history of immigration to the Northeast
Dronacharyas all: Caste discrimination in higher education
A committee has recommended legal action under the SC/ST Atrocities Act against faculty of the Vardhman Medical College for caste-based harassment of 35 students. This is only the latest in a long list of similar cases in India’s institutions of higher education. Subhash Gatade provides the details
The shaky foundations of dalit capitalism
Is economic prosperity the road to dalit emancipation? Or will it just serve to co-opt dalits into the system, asks Subhash Gatade
Jharkhand: The failed promise of an adivasi state
A tribal perspective from Jharkhand describes how the creation of the state, ostensibly for the welfare of tribal populations, has only led to their exploitation and displacement
