By S Menezes, TM Thomas* In recent years, there has been a myriad shift in the history of humankind, namely the rapid ageing of the earth’s population. Aging is a universal process and no human being can escape from this. In the last few years, a majority of the older adults seem to contemplate on … More Issues of elder security and well- being are becoming a matter of increasing concern in India

By Debmalya Nandy* The payments of wages in MGNREGS (Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme) are done through   the Aadhaar Payments Bridge (APB) using the Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) systems. The section 7 of the Aadhaar Act has been applied to MGNREGA which enables the central government and the state governments to establish the identity … More Aadhaar-based payments through the fragile rural banking system adding to workers’ sufferings

Excerpt from the chapter “Impact on Agriculture, Trade, and Livelihoods” in “Violent Cow Protection in India: Vigilante Groups Attack Minorities”, a 104 page Human Rights Watch report, released recently: The cow protection movement is hurting farmers and herders, and impacting their right to a livelihood. M.L. Parihar, a Rajasthan-based author and expert on animal husbandry, … More Dalit, Muslim livelihood disproportionately affected by attacks in the name of cow protection

By Sheshu Babu* Though the trend towards ‘nuclear’ families, where the family unit is mainly parents and children, is increasing, there are indications of increase in families which are neither nuclear nor joint. These may be called ‘broken extended ‘ families. Over half of India’s households have been recorded as nuclear families since 1990s. Joint … More Broken extended households may be 4% of the total, but these have grown by 180%  in a decade

Letter by PS Krishnan, IAS (Retd), former secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Welfare; and member, National Monitoring Committee for Education of SCs, STs and Persons with Disabilities, Government of India, to the Prime Minister regarding importance of immediately launching national centrally-funded programme of universal agricultural land-distribution to all rural SC families, and also … More Need to eliminate historical injustice by providing a viable extent of agricultural land to SCs and STs

By Enamul Mazid Khan Siddique* What does the Hilsa – the most popular fish among Bengalis, have to do with human rights? Well to understand that we need to understand the human dimensions of South Asian fisheries management, and also the life cycle of Hilsa, also known as Ilish. The Hilsa is an anadromous fish, … More India, Bangladesh should focus on needs of the poor fisherfolk while working for preserving Hilsa