For one-and-a-half lakh people, we have a committee of eight people to decide? Ramesh Ramanathan points to the irony of the allegedly empowered, but actually despairing urban citizen.

We cannot implement policies for land reforms without a well-functioning land records system. And If we get this platform in place, we can enable all those interested in reform policy with the tools to ensure that their policy dreams get translated into ground realities, says Ramesh Ramanathan.

Winning the elections to the 15th Lok Sabha elections in India was easier than chalking down and executing what the new United Progressive Alliance has to do in terms of governance. Ramesh Menon looks at some of the challenges ahead.

There are four ideas for a Lokpal and a 'Sense of the House' resolution of Parliament itself before the standing committee whic begins work shortly. The battle for Lokpal is far from over, writes Mathew Prasad Idiculla.

In a country where the need for collective and institutional engagement in social improvement is stark, Shankar Jaganathan explores the role and contours of individual responsibility - both towards self and society - as a necessary precondition for the former.

Corruption in India has attained humongous proportions despite continual but largely erratic movements since independence to tackle this menace. Shankar Jaganathan ponders on whether the recent betting scandal in cricket could catalyse an effective outcome in the fight against political corruption.

Political differences notwithstanding, given the shared socio-cultural fabric, it makes sense for India to collaborate with her South Asian neighbours and look to them for solutions to common problems, writes Sakuntala Narasimhan.

Women in India have continually faced restrictions on how they dress, whether it is on wearing jeans to college or sports gear on the fields. Shoma Chatterji looks at this persistent trend of sartorial repression and urges women to reject such diktats.

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.

The new class VII social science textbook in Kerala has become the cause of clashes. Groups agitating against the book allege its content is anti-religion, while the state curriculum board says it propagates religious tolerance. P N Venugopal reports on the controversy.

The K N Panikkar committee recommended a change in a controversial chapter of a social sciences textbook that triggered violent agitation on the grounds that it promoted atheism and communism. P N Venugopal has more.

Since Kerala and ASEAN countries both produce several similar items, competition from the latter is a cause of worry in the former. But the Centre has over-ridden the State's objections to the free trade agreement, writes Bhaskar Goswami.

Passed in 2005, the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act could have been an effective tool to ensure redress for victims of domestic abuse. But an understaffed implementation body has made it yet another selective and often toothless piece of legislation, finds Puja Awasthi.

A recent Bombay HC ruling on the powers of the NCW, with regard to a case involving sexual harassment at the workplace, could have significant implications for gender justice in the long term. Revathi Siva Kumar looks at the facts of the case and the debate that it has stirred up. 

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.

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.

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.

As the demands for justice draw embarrassingly close to the PM, the decision to raise the height of the Sardar Sarovar dam is being reviewed. But promises are nothing new, and officials have always known that they can be broken with impunity. Should we expect anything different this time? The India Together editorial.

Once a medical approach is accepted, its use tends to spread across the population and income groups. We therefore need to start preparing for the advance of personalised medicine, writes Sujatha Byravan

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

The Confederation of Voluntary Associations discovered that religious symbolism is best left to personal choice; instead, harmony is more easily attained by linking peace with people.

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 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.

Women must be encouraged to speak up, express their own truths and create solidarity networks. Only then will things change, says Deepti Priya Mehrotra.

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.

Outsourcing may have come to stay, but the conditions in which it is undertaken are surely amenable to change. We might wish to consider questions about the future to which IT/BPO employees are being invited to commit themselves, or how much of the work is cutting-edge, says Lata Mani.

12 March this year marks the 75th anniversary of Gandhi's famous 1930 march from Sabarmati to Dandi to break the exploitative salt tax law. With the ruling Congress party staking a claim to the legacy of the march, Venu Madhav Govindu comments on its true symbolism.

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.

What gets measured gets done. The First Annual Survey of Education Report has helped assess the scale of problems in public education better. It is now up to education ministries and administrators, as well as civil society to show progress in specific indicators, until the goal of universal education is met, writes Ashok Kamath.

The primary role of the navy is the protection of the seaboards. Having been shown up by the recent failure, the security establishment now has to get the strategy right, says Pavan Nair.

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.

Instead of bothering itself with luxury pens, a truly egalitarian society would focus its attention on the emancipatory possiblities inherent in wielding a pen, write Venu Madhav Govindu and Deepak Malghan.

The issue of parental authority to resort to corporeal punishment on children is a matter still hotly debated in large sections of our society writes Shankar Jaganathan.

Kalpavriksh - LEAD India, paperback, Rs.100 / U.S. $10
Related Article: The Road to Destruction

Uma Chakravarty turns the pages of Deepti Priya Mehrotra's stories of single mothers.

The Budhan Theatre Group has become the nexus for a movement to change attitudes towards denotified tribes both within Ahmedabad's Chharanagar community and outside it.

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.

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.

Less than 50 per cent of girl child births are being registered by parents because of gender bias, says former Census Commissioner Jayant Banthia, speaking at a Panchayats and Child Rights convention recently at New Delhi. Nitin Jugran Bahuguna reports.

Tribal societies and groups belonging to the Scheduled Tribes in India are traditionally known to have been relatively gender-unbiased, but recent reports and statistics point to a deteriorating child sex ratio in these communities, too. Shambhu Ghatak analyses the findings.

An INASAF investigation finds the state grossly indifferent to the health, medical needs, and humane treatment of its prisoners, some of whom haven't even received trials.

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.

The NCW's protection for women is selective; it bypasses our dignity and preaches an inconsequential morality, says Kalpana Sharma

It appears that those at the bottom are getting richer - but sadly the maths just doesn't add up. George Monbiot doesn't buy the World Bank's arithmetic.

The courts have drifted far from their humanitarian past, and judicial aggression against the urban poor is now the norm, says Videh Upadhyay.