Indian govt's revised rules for National Overseas Scholarship for Dalit & marginalized students prohibit research in "Indian Culture/heritage/History/Social studies"(left) 
Earlier versions had no such restrictions. In fact, 17 seats were for humanities-social sciences (right) The new guidelines, as this detailed Telegraph story points out, will "restrict research in foreign universities on caste..gender inequality..Brahminical cultural traditions, poverty in the context of caste." 
telegraphindia.com/india/national…

NCPCR raids two children's homes linked to human right's activist Harsh Mander.

Having reported on the NCPCR, never before have I seen the apex child right's body, with its political appointees, being reduced to a political tool to this extent.  

indianexpress.com/article/cities… Earlier this year, it trained its guns on Shaheen Bagh anti-CAA protestors for allegedly inflicting "mental trauma" on their children.
Last year, the NCPCR issued a notice to Congress' Priyanka Gandhi for a video of few children raising anti-Modi slogans in front of her.

Modi's stress on raising the legal age of marriage, a seemingly progressive step, will criminalise & exacerbate the existing vulnerabilities of Dalit & Adivasi communities in rural India, instead of empowering its women.
My op-ed based on NFHS data:

indianexpress.com/article/opinio… NFHS data shows how higher education levels lead to delayed age of marriage. However, just 10% ST & 15% SC women have completed 12+ years of schooling as compared to 30% general category & 21% OBC women making a case for extending right to education for all up to 18 yrs.

The UK media first reported on caste discrimination in 2010, a decade prior to #Casteism_In_Cisco, when a Dalit employee at a law firm approached the employment tribunal against his Sikh employers. Link to my 2013 story on the case & UK's anti-caste movt
archive.indianexpress.com/news/uk-wakes-… The law firm employee was harassed & abused for his inter-caste marriage with a Sikh Jat colleague, & eventually fired. A member from Caste Watch UK found his home vandalised after he deposed before the tribunal as an expert witness in the case.

#Thread : A treasure trove of online resources that you can access for free right now- Theatre, Books, Movies, Knowledge. 
1. Shakespeare's Globe is streaming six of its productions for free ( starting with Hamlet yesterday @The_Globe ): shakespearesglobe.com/watch/ 2. National Theatre has launched #NationalTheatreAtHome for streaming its productions ( Jane Eyre this Thursday @NTLive ): nationaltheatre.org.uk/nt-at-home  
These will be available on their YouTube channels for a limited period from the date of streaming: Globe (15 days) & NT (7 days)

A report by Jan Sahas on the impact of COVID-19 on migrant construction workers shows that of the 3196 labourers surveyed, 90% lost their source of income in the last 3 weeks, 62% don't have any info on govt's emergency welfare measures, 42% have no ration left for even a day 94%workers do not have the Building & Construction Workers identity card making them ineligible for availing benefits from Rs 32,000 crore BOCW fund. Extrapolated to the 55 million labourers employed in the construction sector, this amounts to an exclusion of 51 million workers

#THREAD An online survey by @NWM_India of 456 women in Indian media released today, the 1st such survey in the wake of the #MeToo movement in the country, shows that 36% of the respondents reported having experienced sexual harassment at work #NWMIDelhi2019 60% of the respondents said that their orgs had policy to redress sexual harassment, but only a third of the respondents felt that the Internal Compaints Committee (ICC) handled complaints in a fair and unbiased manner

Few imp Law Commission recommendations on family law reforms-
Parsi Law: Parsi woman should be allowed to retain her identity even if she marries outside the community. Children should be allowed to inherit if they choose Zoroastrian religion and not their father’s religion Hindu Law: Abolition of the Hindu Undivided Family used for tax evasion. Abolition of coparcenary. Provision of restitution of conjugal rights should not be permitted. New law to address the issue of legitimisation of children born of live-in relationships & their rgt to inherit

In its ‘Consultation paper on Family Law Reforms’ released today, Law Commission does not take a stand in favour of Uniform Civil Code. Instead, it argues for codification and reform of family laws of every religion so as to make it gender-just @IndianExpress “In the absence of any consensus on a uniform civil code …the best way forward may be to preserve the diversity of personal laws but at the same time ensure that personal laws do not contradict fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution of India”: Law Commission

Pune, Navi Mumbai, Greater Mumbai, Tirupati, Chandigarh, Thane, Raipur, Indore, Vijayawada, Bhopal ranked, in that order, as the top cities in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affair's Ease of Living Index released on Monday @IndianExpress New Delhi ranked a low 65 on the Ease of Living Index

#DeathForChildRapists a poor deterrent: Presently only 3% convictions, 94% accused know victims in child rape cases indianexpress.com/article/india/… Of the 64,138 child rape cases in courts in 2016, 1,869 cases — less than 3%— ended in convictions. The poor conviction rate shows that death penalty - which comes at the sentencing stage, post-convictions — will mean little to a vast majority of the victims

#SupremeCourt on 377: #RightToPrivacy & protection of sexual orientation lie at the core of the fundamental rts guaranteed by Art 14 15 21 #RightToPrivacy on 377: Invasion of a funda rgt is not rendered tolerable when a few, as opposed to many, r subjected to hostile treatment