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Showing posts from December, 2021

Carte blanche for vigilante excesses on rural Christians? Karnataka anti-conversion bill

  A People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Karnataka, report “Criminalizing the Practice of Faith”, seeking to trace “hate crimes” on Christians in Karnataka between January and November this year, allegedly by Hindutva groups, has said that the “bogey” of conversion is being used by the current BJP rulers in the State in order to “target the Constitutional right to practice, profess and propagate religion, as recognized under Article 25.”

With six journos killed this year, India follows Pakistan as 4th 'most dangerous country'

Afghanistan, Mexico, Pakistan and India are the "most dangerous" countries for media work this year, the Geneva-based Press Emblem Campaign (PEC) said in its annual report. Since January 1, as many as 76 media workers have been killed in 28 countries around the world. Afghanistan leads with 12 assassinations, ahead of Mexico where 10 journalists were killed. Among the most dangerous countries are Pakistan (7), India (6), Yemen (4), Democratic Republic of Congo (3) and the Philippines (3 killed).

Lurking gap as schools reopen: 77% children had no access to teachers during pandemic

  An Odisha NGO report “Bridging the Gap: Reimagining School Education in a Post-Covid Scenario” has said that nearly two-thirds of children (63.3 %) could not get required support from their family members to deal with their emotional, social and learning support during the pandemic, when the schools were closed. This happened even as 91.09% of the children reported they did not have access to smartphone, making their learning “difficult and stressful.”

Failure to curb sandalwood mafia led to death of tribal workers in Andhra: People's Watch

The fact finding team talking to victim's kin A Madurai-based NGO’s fact-finding team on a recent incident involving the death of two Tamil Nadu labourers, who allegedly died after being taken in custody by the Andhra Pradesh forest officials, has said that, belonging to the scheduled tribal (ST) Malayalee community, they were part of several tribals from various villages of Sitheri Panchayat, Harur Taluk, Dharmapuri District, being taken to Andhra Pradesh on November 21, 2021 to work as wage workers. 

Make caste bias top US foreign policy issue: Diaspora rights groups tell government

Several US-based Indian diaspora civil rights groups have submitted a policy memo to the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the US Department of State asking the department to “recognize and elevate” the importance of fighting caste discrimination internationally as part of the country’s foreign policy thrust.

Cancel Jindal project seeking to 'dispossess' people from forest land: Odisha govt told

The civil rights group, Indian Community Activists Network (ICAN), commenting on the “barbaric” police  action  on the night of December 3 against the people of Dhinkia village, Jagatsinghpur district, Odisha, has said that the attack took place on people who were “peacefully protesting against the proposed project of JSW Utkal Steel Limited by forcefully acquiring their land.”