Land rights: In India’s flood-prone Assam, hill settlers hold out hope for titles
RINA CHANDRAN reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation on the battle over land rights for people living in informal settlements…
Have wheels, will learn? India bets on free scooters for top girl students
Guwahati, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation The Indian state of Assam is trying a new tack to keep girls learning – rewarding 22,000 of its top performers with a free scooter for passing final school exams. The north-eastern state hopes its giveaway will encourage more girls to go to college, with the hazards of public transport often […]
Spat on and abused: Coronavirus fuels racism against India’s north-easterners
ANNIE BANERJI, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, reports…
Who is Indigenous? Millions may be denied land in India’s Assam over definition
Guwahati, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation Millions of migrants and tribal people in India’s north-eastern Assam state could be denied land because of a new definition of the term “Indigenous”, land and human rights experts said. Assam has a long-simmering movement against immigrants and its 2019 land policy, aimed at overhauling a three-decade old land law, seeks […]
Indian states propose land rights amid citizenship fears
Mumbai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation Authorities in the Indian states of Assam and West Bengal have vowed to protect the land rights of Indigenous people and refugees amidst protests against a new citizenship law that critics say discriminates against Muslims. In the north-eastern state of Assam, a planned law will prevent Indigenous people from selling land […]
Facebook a ‘megaphone for hate’ against Indian minorities
Mumbai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation Facebook is failing to rein in a “tsunami” of hate posts inflaming ethnic tensions in India’s Assam state, campaign group Avaaz said on Wednesday, with content about “criminals”, “rapists”, “terrorists” and “dogs” shared almost 100,000 times. Avaaz said the dehumanising language – often targeting India’s Bengali Muslims – was similar to […]
Violence against Christians in India continues in run-up to 2019 elections
World Watch Monitor Hindu nationalists vandalised two Christian places of worship in the northern Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Assam in the last two weeks, reports AsiaNews. On 29th September a statue of Saint John Bosco, also known as Don Bosco, was desecrated in the city of Tezpur, Assam, northeast India. So far it is not […]
UK’s Twinings reveals suppliers amid drive for slave-free Indian tea
Thomson Reuters Foundation UK tea firm Twinings published a list of the Indian plantations it buys from on Monday, citing the need for transparency to improve conditions in an industry experts say is rife with abuse. India’s tea industry, the world’s second largest, employs 3.5 million workers and studies have found many live in appalling […]
Fears grip Indian state as millions made stateless
Thomson Reuters Foundation More than four million people left off a draft list of citizens in northeast India on Monday have effectively been made stateless, campaigners said, likening them to the Rohingya minority driven out of Myanmar. Fear gripped the border state of Assam as India’s census chief released the list of citizens in the […]
STRANGESIGHTS: RUSSIAN BILLIONAIRE INAUGURATED AS LEADER OF “SPACE NATION”; THE “RESTORATION” OF ST GEORGE; AND A RAT’S (RATHER EXPENSIVE) LAST MEAL…
DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…