India’s Gujarat state land grabbing law hurting women, poor
Thomson Reuters Foundation A new law to curb illegal land occupation in the western Indian state of Gujarat is hurting the urban poor, women and lower-caste Dalits, land rights groups said on Wednesday, with thousands facing eviction and loss of their livelihoods. Under the Gujarat Land Grabbing (Prohibition) Act, enacted in December, anyone found to […]
Confined, beaten and denied leave – but not seen as a slave in India
Mumbai, IndiaThomson Reuters Foundation Tens of thousands of slavery survivors in India who were confined, abused and exploited at work are denied compensation because officials are often ignorant of the law – with police sending 60 workers they rescued home empty-handed this week. Police in the western state of Gujarat who freed 94 workers – […]
2017 saw 20 per cent increase in “atrocities” against Christians in India, says lawyer
World Watch Monitor Amid growing extreme Hindu nationalism in India, dozens of speakers have called for concerted action to uphold the country’s constitution and fundamental rights, at a conference to mark four years of government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “There is a grave threat to plurality,” Professor Ganesh Narayan Devy, a scholar on […]
Good Friday holiday reinstated in Christian-majority Indian state after protests
World Watch Monitor Widespread protests have forced the government in Christian-majority Meghalaya State in north-east India to restore the Good Friday holiday. The coalition government, to which the Hindu nationalist BJP is a partner, had declared in a circular that Good Friday would be a normal “working day”, but the move was withdrawn on Tuesday, 27th […]