While Mayawati's projects to build parks and statues have drawn derision in the drawing rooms of the stately homes in the country, the people at her rallies are in awe of her. Her work is Dalit power, they feel and will make her immortal. Kulsum Mustafa has more.

A quiet but steady revolution seems to be underway as both government and private individuals and organizations increasingly explore ways to make more data available to the people and in various innovative ways to facilitate application. Shamala Kittane reports.

Casteism and the state of our civil society were the major issues discussed at the recently held Difficult Dialogues conclave in Goa. It was organised by the South Asia Centre of the London School of Economics India Summit 2016 and the Television Trust for the Environment. Darryl D’Monte, who participated in one of the panel discussions, reports.

The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act must be modified to ensure that women are protected against coercive and sex-selective abortions, says Pavan Nair.

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.

March 8 remains a valuable vantage point, a time to take stock and look ahead. In fact, significant events over the past year-and-a-half invite fresh thinking on women's issues. We saw "empowered" women, but also saw new victims, notes Mary E John.

The national meet of the RSS women's wing witnessed an interesting exercise in the forging of a gender discourse that ostensibly moves away from the Sangh's patriarchal stance, but also visibly shies away from recognising the social and political dimensions of gender-related issues. Aparna Pallavi reports.

A pan-India survey conducted recently by the Bangalore-based Institute for Social and Economic Change (ISEC) has brought an alarming new phenomenon of premature menopause amongst Indian women to light. Neeta Lal has more.

What policies can inspire men to end violence against women? This was the topic of a conference held in New Delhi, recently. The discussion hoped to begin a dialogue on masculinities itself, writes Deepti Priya Mehrotra.

The Maharashtra government recently approved a proposal where a woman in a live-in relationship for a "reasonable period" of time would get the status of a "wife". Ramesh Menon has more.

The government's move to regulate the retail sale of acid is a welcome one, but for the many hundreds who have been prey to such heinous acts, life continues to be a daily struggle against physical and social odds. Priyanka Nadgir talks to one such survivor.

A retired diplomat in Bhubaneswar wants more old age homes in India, but why? Rakhi Ghosh narrates the stories of a few elderly people in the city, as she tries to fathom their needs and expectations.

Last year's poor monsoon is only the most proximate reason for the drought-related suffering; failures in many aspects of governance led inevitably to misery, say Manu Mathai and Ashwin Mahesh.

Despite lack of support from policy-makers, potato farmers continue to deploy indigenously developed production and storage techniques, says Virendar Khatana.

Serious and rampant irregularities exposed by the CAG audit of the Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008 hold important cautionary advice for the government as it seeks to launch direct cash transfers. Himanshu Upadhyaya analyses.

The current crisis has some striking similarities with the fallout in India of the Great Depression of 1929-1933. Indian farmers were pushed deep into debt, and the overall economy suffered, recalls Kannan Kasturi.

The India Together editorial

Ramachandra Guha thinks that educational aspirations - especially for Muslim girls - that have long been deferred despite the promise of independence may finally be nearer to reality.

Ramesh Ramanathan

The task of cleansing our polity of crime and corruption is best done by people of compassion, empathy, humility and deep caring, people who remain fair and non partisan even when dealing with those they hate, writes Madhu Purnima Kishwar.

Responding to reports of high stress among students and parents, the state proposes to revise the grading system used in Class X. Sreedevi Jacob reports on the hopes and fears it has raised.

With a long history of support for public education, Kerala has led the nation's movement towards universal literacy. But now, with the early challenges conquered, there are tough new lessons to be learned, to provide equitable, quality education. Deepa A reports.

In Kerala, considered a role model for other parts of the country, almost all Muslim children up to the tenth standard are in school, numbers that compare well to that of other communities. Yet, the story is very different when one looks at higher education, writes Deepa A.

In Attapady block of Kerala's Palakkad district, illicit liquor is taking a heavy toll among the adviasis. Addiction to the brew has led to many deaths and suicides, even as a complacent and complicit administration looks on. M Suchitra reports.

Some sections in Kerala are already blaming the land reform law for hurting big industrial projects; meanwhile around 10,000 dalit and adivasi families are locked in a struggle for the original entitlements that never came, reports M Suchitra.

Can a legal ruling, never mind if it is from the apex court of the country, change the socio-cultural and psychological ramifications of unwed motherhood in India? Shoma A Chatterji probes deeper to find out the social and sociological impact of the ruling on the family.

Dr Ilina Sen, well-known social activist and feminist scholar, who currently heads the Department of Women’s Studies in Mahatma Gandhi University, Wardha, Maharashtra speaks in detail to M Suchitra about her husband's trial and her appeal to the Chhatisgarh High Court.

A simple way to claim that everyone affected by dam construction is properly rehabilitated is to make a list of affected persons - and then leave off thousands of them from the list. This has been the history of rehabilitation in the Narmada valley. Himanshu Upadhyaya notes that after many years, the game isn't quite adding up in the courts.

The displaced people of the Narmada valley have long argued that the states and the Centre have shortchanged them - ignoring the claims of many, offering uncultivable land in exchange, and going ahead with dam construction even before they are resettled. A recent Supreme Court verdict proves they were right all along, says Medha Patkar.

Collective Action for Rural Development (CAFORD) encourages families in Andhra's Prakasam district to keep their children in school.

A new report on finds agribusiness corporations from India and abroad are reneging on their promises to stop employing children in Andhra Pradesh. Gomati Jagadeesan reports.

In a society where children are never consulted, parents in an Andhra Pradesh district are looking at their children with new respect. Village children, determined to transform their communities, are writing and producing a Telugu community radio programme, 'Allari Muchchatlu'. Komilla Raote reports.

Over 230,000 people in hundreds of villages to be displaced, tens of thousands of acres submerged, wildlife and forest lands inundated - the Polavaram project will repeat the great tragedy of displacement and environmental damage that has marked so many other projects in the country. R Uma Maheshwari reports.

The Draft Capital Master Plan of Andhra Pradesh, which proposes development of the new capital for the state of Andhra, is of a deep concern. Debadityo Sinha analyses the plan to show what it lacks and why the plan doesn't augur well for the state.

Over the next two decades, Indians are going to see an enormous challenge to the value systems of the past, being replaced by the new value systems of globalisation says Ramesh Ramanathan.

In trying to present themselves as democratic, respectable, and - most implausible of all - intellectual, the BJP allied themselves with the memory and legacy of a man they once bitterly opposed. Ramachandra Guha predicts a renaissance of rememberance of India's first Prime Minster.

The World Bank's Country Assistance Strategy ignores reduced employment and a shrinking resource base as the reasons for continuing poverty, says Sudhirendar Sharma.

From biogas to solar cookers and improved cookstoves, from agricultural tools to drudgery reducing technologies, most research and development in appropriate technologies has not been backed-up by appropriate market incentives. In contrast, hi-tech is totally market driven, says Sudhirendar Sharma.

Are quotas the way to redress inequities? A majority of the members of the National Knowledge Commission did not agree, but the UPA government is pressing ahead with its focus on quotas. Two of the NKC's members, Pratap Bhanu Mehta and Andre Beteille, have resigned from the commission.

The inability of India to adequately provide for its own population no longer reflects a failure of implementation, but rather of a failure of innovation, writes Aditya Dev Sood.

The Age of Consent is a clarion call to implausible action. But maybe that's the point - to urge that we ask why the obviously good outcomes seem so unlikely.

The violent assertiveness against Aamir Khan is part of a larger trend, marked by politicians who have instilled the language with idioms of aggression. But as they mobilise to silence the 'other' voices in the Narmada struggle, 'we' lose too, for it is only a short step from here to gagging ourselves, says Himanshu Upadhyaya.

The Gujarat state government appears to have very little planned by way of support for the education of Muslim children. What's more the education department appears to be standing in the way of the embattled community's attempts to help itself. Deepa A has more.

An ongoing study of school textbooks in four states has found stereotypes and biases in Gujarat's textbooks. The Social Studies textbook for standard five has nine stories on mythology masquerading as history. Deepa A reports.

Following his earlier acclaimed films, Rakesh Sharma has released two new Gujarati documentaries earlier this month. The films -- Sharma has even used RTI to collect government data -- expose unsavoury truths about farmers suicides as well as lower-caste rioters now in prison. Shoma Chatterji reports.

Labour contractors and large landowners continue to employ children, often exposing them to vulnerable situations. Extreme poverty in Rajasthan's tribal districts fuels the practice. Pradeep Baisakh reports.

The famed textile industry of Surat is one of the pillars of Gujarat's industrial success story. What is less known about it is the unfortunate reality of rampant child employment and exploitation that prevails there. Shirish Khare reports.

During the last four to five years, the soil in several parts of Punjab has been regenerated and rejuvenated. Natural farmers are convinced it is working. The movement is led by experienced farmers who believe in Guru Nanak's tenet of Sarbat da bhala (well being of all). Umendra Dutt writes about the transformative work hundreds of farmers are doing.

In the passing of Kalpana Chawla, the genuine feeling of loss expressed by so many reveals the thirst amongst the young for role models, says Kalpana Sharma.

Nothing exposes the hollowness of the claims corporations now make to intellectual property as much as their own histories, says George Monbiot.