Sukanya Shantha

Last week, two young professionals from Mumbai vented their anger against Narendra Modi and Devendra Fadnavis on social media. Both now have cases lodged against them.

After 40 persons were killed in an alleged encounter between the C-60 commandos and Naxals in Maharashtra's Gadchiroli, a village waits to identify their dead even as the media smears their missing children as outlaws.

The Mecca Masjid verdict is an uncanny reminder of the Malegaon blast case for the ex-public prosecutor, who was shunted out from NIA but has not yet been 'denotified' from the case.

Poor access to natural ventilation and sunlight, and dearth of space, has resulted in an abnormally high incidence of tuberculosis among the residents of three resettlement complexes.

Balancing himself on two wobbly boats, Amit pulls out a 60-foot-long metal bargepole tied to one of them and slips it into the bed of the river. “Fifty feet,” he announces. The other four helpers support the pole and then tie it up on the rear of the boat. This pole tells him the exact depth of the river and the task at hand. Without wasting much time, Amit then changes into a vest and shorts, takes a deep breath and plunges into the river. He dives in and out of the water for the next eight hours, manually excavating sand using an iron bucket from the bed of the saline Thane creek.

After a year-long court battle, 19-year-old Fakeha has returned to her college in Bhiwandi run by the Janseva Mandal Trust, but says there is still no end to harassment.

In 2003, as part of its anti-Naxal drive, the Maharashtra government began rewarding villages for being 'Naxal-free'. This process included picking up non-Naxals and making it look like a voluntary 'surrender'.

The absence of any effort by the CBI to protect and reassure their witnesses is leading to the mass retraction of earlier statements made before a magistrate that had incriminated the accused.

Organised by an offshoot of the Sanatan Sanstha, over 7,000 men and women attended a recent event in Pune that was aimed at evoking a strong pro-Hindutva sentiment, which in turn implied attacking Muslims, the government, the media and the liberals.

Dalit-Bahujan issues, earlier rejected even within the liberal political space, are now at the centre of political discourse.

'Instead of arresting those involved in terrorizing our community, the police has been busy arresting our children,' said the uncle of a 14-year-old boy who was picked up.

In a southern city, a young Dawoodi Bohra couple was recently asked to abruptly stop the ongoing renovation work in their house and give in writing that they would get rid of the newly-built western toilets in the house and abide with the recent ‘advisory’ issued by the sect’s spiritual leader, the 53rd Syedna, Mufaddal Saifuddin.

The advisory, a part of the community’s year-old ‘upliftment and awareness drive’, was issued earlier this month against the use of western toilets.

Even with apparent deformities to their bodies, many leprosy-affected individuals are not recognised as ‘disabled’ by the state health department.
Vijayawada/Guntur: Kodavalli Ramadevi avoids visiting the fair price shop in Godugu Vari Gudem village at Nuzwid mandal in the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh at the beginning of the month to collect her rations. She waits for at least ten days every month, just to ensure that everyone in the village has already availed their share of Public Dis...

Families of those killed have claimed that the men’s bodies did not have bullet injuries, but looked like they had been severely tortured.
Bhadradri Kothagudem (Telangana): There was nothing unusual in Nunawath Arjun’s phone call to his family on Wednesday (December 13) afternoon. Twenty-two-year-old Arjun had called his aunt, Chandini Ishawat, to exchange pleasantries and discuss the new workplace that he had joined only a few days ago. “He said he was earning well, Rs 400 per day. He told m...

In an attempt to make the city ‘open defecation free’, families who had paid for toilets and were midway through construction allege that their houses were destroyed before surveyors came around.
Indore: In November last year, Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) officials moved around in the city in twos or threes to ensure that every household without a personal toilet was enumerated. Nanjubai’s house was one among 40 – all belonging to the Bhil community – built on one end of the Sukhniwas r...