Reports

Rakesh Bardhan is all of eight, and studies in Class IV. At an age when children are full of dreams about what they want to do when they grow up, Rakesh is no different. Except that he asserts, “I’ll agitate against police and all type of torture of the government.” Rakesh is gutsy, hardened; he is also one of the leaders of the Balok Sena, the boys and girls seen on the frontlines of the anti-POSCO agitation in Odisha earlier this summer. Rakesh chants slogans, and mobilises schoolmates. But...

As much as 227 million hectares – an area the size of Western Europe – have been sold, leased or licensed in largescale land deals in the developing world since 2001, mostly by international investors. This modern-day land rush follows a drive to produce enough food for people overseas, meet damaging biofuels targets or speculate on land to make an easy profit, an Oxfam International study ‘Land and Power: The growing scandal surrounding the new wave of investments in land’ has warned. Most of...

When Kanupriya Harish took a team from Wells for India around Janadesar village in Rajasthan’s Jodhpur district, it was the routine monitoring visit of a donor agency that had supported a sanitation project in the area. Meeting over, a woman took Kanupriya aside and whispered, “It is because of you that our lives have changed.” That said, she melted away into the crowd. There was no way she could have been recognised – her face was covered, a norm for married women in the desolate landscape of...

Could the floods in Odisha that are still raging across the state been avoided? A team of journalists and social workers who toured around the Hirakud dam area argue that it certainly could have been. The floods in the region are being described as “man-made”. Far from controlling the floods, dams have only aggravated the situation. The dams were also allegedly allowed to be filled up to the brim in order to retain waters for a dry season so that they could supply power and water to resource...

The thermal power capacity in India which has already received environmental clearances or is in the clearance pipeline is far in excess of what is needed in the coming two decades. Data from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) analysed by the Pune-based Prayas Energy Group shows that the ministry has accorded environmental clearances to a large number of coal and gas-based power plants whose capacity totals 192,913 MW. Another 508,907 MW are at various stages in the environmental...

The villagers here are employed at the nearby mines as labourers. The daily wage fixed by the government is Rs 156, yet the contractor rarely pays them Rs 100. Anyone who raises the issue with either the contractor or company officials gets himself blacklisted from the roll. The village in question is Chilika Daad in Sonebhadra district of coal-rich Singrauli region in India’s Uttar Pradesh state. It stands out as a cruel example of people being displaced several times by different projects and...

They had three sons. They were not rich, but “were quite contented”. In the mid-1950s, her husband responded to the Naga movement and joined the Naga army. He rose through the ranks to become an important officer. His wife and children stayed behind in the village to fend for themselves by labouring in their fields. The Indian army kept constant surveillance and often raided the house hoping to capture him. She lived through constant fear and harassment. After several years in the Naga army, the...

A year after the Press Council of India decided to bury a sub-committee report on the malaise of “paid news” in the news media, the issue has returned to haunt the council again. The Central Information Commission (CIC) has directed the Press Council make public the report of the two-member sub-committee as part of suo motu disclosure mandated under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The Press Council of India had constituted a two member sub-committee comprising senior journalists Paranjoy...

The fashion community worldwide is not known to get into political wrangles. But the New York Fashion Week this time did – it booted out the daughter of Uzbekistan’s dictator who had planned to unveil her spring fashion line at the event. The organisers of the New York Fashion Week cancelled the show of Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Uzebekistan’s authoritarian leader Islam Karimov, after intense pressure from groups like the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW). According to HRW, “Her father...

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) had fled Nagaland in May 1994 in the face of stiff opposition from both the people and militants. The oil exploration giant returned to the state a few years ago to resume operations, since a semblance of peace had apparently returned in the backdrop of the ongoing ceasefire between the insurgents and the Indian government. In March 1994, ONGC was served with an ultimatum by the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN-IM) demanding a...