RTI amendment move part of push for 'regressive' changes in pro-people laws

By A Representative
The National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) has said that the proposed amendments to the Right to Information (RTI) Act is part of sinister attempts by the NDA Government to "arbitrarily push ahead regressive" changes in multiple pro-people legislations passed after protracted nation-wide struggles and consultative parliamentary processes when UPA was in power before 2014.
Calling it a move to "dilute" the RTI Act, "one of the most potent tools to ensure governmental accountability", NAPM said, the amendment would undermine the independence and autonomy of information commissions, which a matter of "grave concern."
Introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 19 "amidst a shroud of secrecy and there were no public consultations in this regard", one of India's topmost grassroots organizations said, the law’s passage in Parliament in 2005 was a victory and acknowledgement of the tireless efforts of peoples’ movements and campaigns that represented the will and intention of lakhs of citizens to keep democracy alive.
Those who have endorsed the statement include Medha Patkar, Aruna Roy, Nikhil Dey, Shankar Singh, Dr Binayak Sen, Lingraj Azad, others.

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The silent epidemic: What numbers tell us about India's youth mental health crisis

By Jyotiradiya Singh* Every year, the National Crime Records Bureau publishes a report that most people never read. It is called Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India, and buried inside its tables and percentages is one of the clearest pictures we have of what young India is going through right now. The numbers are not abstract. Each one is a person, a family, a room that went quiet.

Ex-bureaucrats flag tribal rights concerns in Odisha, seek release of arrested leaders

By A Representative A group of former civil servants, organised as the Constitutional Conduct Group, has issued an open letter to the Government of India expressing concern over the erosion of rights of Scheduled Tribes and other traditional forest dwellers in Odisha. The group, which describes itself as having no political affiliation, said Odisha has the fourth largest forest cover in India and the third largest Scheduled Tribe population, and alleged that large tracts of tribal-inhabited forests are being surrendered to mining and industrial projects, reducing both the forests and the communities dependent on them to distress.

From caste to race: Reading 'Black & Buddhist' through an Indian lens

By Rajiv Shah A few days ago, while visiting a local library in a relatively small town on the eastern coast of the United States, the person who took me there asked if I wished to borrow a book. I looked around. While I couldn't find much that immediately connected with me, one book seemed of particular interest: Black & Buddhist .

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