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Medieval practices in a modern stateNEW
When a young girl died after exorcism failed to cure her, the exorcists were branded as evil by a ‘divine messenger’ and hacked to death under the gaze of the entire village. This is one of three such killings in recent times in a village just 14 miles from Jharkhand’s state capital, Ranchi, which itself has seen 240 murders of ‘witches’ in the past 10 years More... Deadly dustNEWThough many migrant workers from south Madhya Pradesh have died of the incurable workplace disease called silicosis contracted from inhaling quartz dust in stone crushing factories in Gujarat, the public health system has carried out no comprehensive survey to identify the disease, which is often passed off as tuberculosis, many factories have not installed anti-pollution systems, and the NHRC has been sitting on the case since 2006 More... Quiet death of a languageBoa Senior, the last speaker of a language called Bo -- one of the ten Great Andamanese languages -- died last week in Port Blair. She was aged around 85. With her death, the language that may have constituted the sixth language family in India has become extinct More... ‘I was not going to Copenhagen to save humanity but to protect India's right to development’Union Minister for Forests and Environment Jairam Ramesh talks to Diva Arora about the role of BASIC countries in the Copenhagen summit, the challenges of ‘green’ growth and why it’s important for India to engage positively with China More... No peace without justiceIf they return to their villages they may not survive. If they stay on in their resettlement colony they will never have basic education, healthcare or livelihoods. Eight years after the Gujarat riots, this is the status of thousands of displaced Muslims in the state. More... Chhattisgarh: Lost battleThe people of Chhattisgarh appear to have lost the battle against industrialisation without rules. Even those who held out longest against the acquisition of their lands, forests and rivers are giving up the fight. Dilnaz Boga travels through the villages of Raigarh district, where thousands are being displaced More... A dubious GIFTGujarat International Finance Tech City (GIFT), to come up in Gandhinagar, is being promoted as India's largest multi-services financial hub. To be built mostly on common grazing lands grabbed from surrounding villages and by panicking farmers into selling their agricultural land, it is yet another instance of how commercial interests are favoured at the expense of the poor More... Sanitation in the time of floodsWhen the annual floods come, Salma Begum puts her bed on an elevated platform and the family cooks, eats, and sleeps on the bed. Finding a place to answer nature’s call involves drifting in a raft until she finds a dry place, and the polluted flood waters are the only source of drinking water and bathing. This, at a time when India has launched a Total Sanitation Campaign that aims to eradicate open defecation by the end of 2010 More... Proud Mothers of Sri LankaFive years after it was devastated by the tsunami, the fishing village of Mahaskaduwa in Kalutara district of Sri Lanka is back on its feet. The Proud Mothers women’s collective has swept the garbage off the streets, provided a livelihood for the villagers and improved health and sanitary conditions More... Change begins, literally, in your backyardEco-pioneer Jules Dervaes has transformed his small garden in Pasadena into an organic farm, run on renewable energies, that not only takes care of his family’s year-long food requirements but also supplies to restaurants. His film on this revolution in urban sustainability has inspired thousands across the globe More... Modern-day slaves in a globalised worldBlue-collar workers from developing countries often sell everything they own to get a job in the land of milk and honey. An increasing number of these ‘guest workers’ in the US are being exploited and forced to live in inhuman conditions, with the constant threat of deportation More... “Are projects for people, or people for projects?”A public hearing on the Mangalore Special Economic Zone revealed how rules were flouted and records fudged, compensation was not paid and promised jobs never materialised, and how land and groundwater were polluted More... Breastfeeding is the key to infant and child survivalPromoting something as simple as breastfeeding can reduce infant mortality by 11.6%. But though India has among the worst infant and child mortality figures in the world, 75% of the nation’s children are not breastfed from birth and over 50% are not exclusively breastfed. More... The veil as a political weaponForce can never be used to achieve freedom, writes Azar Mahloujian, an opponent of the Islamic regime in Iran, who has been living in Sweden since 1982. Women cannot accept anyone else telling them that they must – or must not – wear the veil More... Media melee at CopenhagenAs many as 3,500 unruly and undiscerning journalists were covering the climate summit More... |
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