Refugees are not illegal migrants
Though India plays host to over 300,000 refugees from neighbouring countries, the country has a completely ad hoc system of refugee determination, deportation and protection
Who says dalits under-perform?
Chandra Bhan Prasad responds to the debate about extending affirmative action for dalits to the private sector
Dance bar ahead: Keep out: Part 2: The right to sexuality
The ban on dance bars in Mumbai is ostensibly to protect youth from the sexualised environment of the bars. Instead of keeping the shadows and silences around sexuality intact, we need a rights-based approach to young people's sexuality, giving them the right to information that has a direct bearing on their health and well-being
Brewing tensions in adivasi India
From the eviction of adivasis from forestlands in Madhya Pradesh's Burhanpur district to the continued threat to their lives from the army's routine firing exercises in Netarhat, Jharkhand, tribal populations throughout India are being exploited, intimidated and further alienated. The sharpening conflict between the adivasis and the Indian state must be addressed
Untouchability: What the tsunami couldn't wash away
The dalit survivors of the tsunami were reportedly thrown out of relief camps, barred from using makeshift toilets, and given stale food. What will it take to wash away this powerful and destructive caste order that is so firmly rooted in Indian society, asks Chandra Bhan Prasad
Baina beach demolitions: What about the sex worker's right to shelter?
Acting on orders by the Goa bench of the Bombay High Court, around 250 huts belonging to sex workers, on Goa's Baina beach, were bulldozed in an effort to 'clean up' Goa. 'Operation Monsoon Demolition' appears to have been based on the assumption that sex workers have no right to shelter
Putting a premium on diversity
This year's Human Development Report comes as a breath of fresh air. It emphasises that enjoying cultural freedoms in the 21st century is a basic human right. And that instead of viewing diversity as a drag on development, we should consider cultural liberty an integral component of social and economic progress
Untouchables in the world of IT
While the US's leading private sector IT firm, Microsoft, has recognised the need for affirmative action and is taking steps to increase minority recruitment, no Indian corporate house has declared its commitment to ending caste discrimination
Orissa: A continuing denial of adivasi rights
The recent Justice PK Mishra Commission report on the Maikanch firing in Orissa's Rayagada district, in which three adivasis were killed in December 2000 as they opposed displacement, faults the police for excessive use of force. But the report dilutes its impact by observing that environmental protection cannot hold back Orissa's development
Big Brother in the bedroom: 'Unnatural' offences and Section 377
Decriminalising private, consensual adult sexual behaviour, the Indian government feels, might open the floodgates of delinquent behaviour. By refusing to repeal Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, the government is reinforcing 150-year-old strictures disapproving sex for pleasure and not procreation. Shouldn't the State allow consenting adults to make their own sexual choices?