Laws to protect the environment cannot follow a simple prohibition model;
what is needed instead is an elaborate scheme of regulation and licensing, following
rules designed to promote fairness and efficiency.
Sairam Bhat
outlines the differences between the two legal approaches to protecting the
natural environment.
Top-down water supply and sanitation schemes have failed the poor time and again. But for decentralization and community involvement to work, local governments -- municipalities -- must improve.
Surekha Sule
reports on the findings of a global assessment that included India.
55 years after Independence, the people, the prime minister, opposition leaders, the Election Commission and the Supreme Court are all crying, day after day, for clean politics. Former High Commissioner to South Africa
L C Jain
connects the past with the present.
The second national convention on the Right to Information in New Delhi attracted well over 1,000 participants
from more than 20 states. Vigorous participation from activists,academicians, lawyers and journalists
made this a vibrant, fruitful process, writes
Deepti Priya Mehrotra.
A new report on finds agribusiness corporations from India
and abroad
are reneging on their promises to stop employing children
in Andhra Pradesh.
Gomati Jagadeesan
reports.
When it comes to violenc within the four walls of the home, even educated
and affluent women are reduced to victim status not very different from women
who are not
so well provided for.
Kalpana Sharma
asks if it is too much to want a law that will truly protect women
from torture behind closed doors.
The main message that is going out to the masses is: use condoms.
But this overlooks a fundamental reality about the values contained in
that message, says
Mirra Savara.
The flower industry suffers from logistical bottlenecks and inadequate post-harvest infrastructure, but government support has focussed mostly on the growers. Varupi Jain starts at Delhi, India's apex flower market, and travels back the supply chain.
A round table gathering of citizens and planners has identified ways to
improve the city's transportation services. If successful, this
initiative could
serve as a model for active participation by residents in solving
a problem every metropolitan area faces.
Pankaj Sekhsaria
reports.
The beating of media persons at Kozhikode's airport had its fallout all over Kerala. It has pitted the media against the state government. Several issues concerning rights and privacy need to be discussed, including some of the medias own failings says
N P Chekkutty.
Activists within the Muslim community are demanding reforms to tackle
questions of personal law such as dowry, divorce and polygamy.
Ashima Kaul
reports.
Unmindful of clear urban development guidelines, the Delhi municipality is replacing greenery lined
pavements with tiles, followed by a yearly ritual of retiling with newer designs.
Kanchi Kohli
writes about the unchecked concretization.
Women domestic workers and children narrated horrific stories of violence and abuse at a recent public hearing in New Delhi, co-organized by the National Commission for Women (NCW). Organizers aimed to raise public awareness.
Teresa Barat
reports.
These National Human Rights Commission's hearings on the Right to Healthcare are bringing out hundreds
of poor citizens' experiences of being refused public health care. Gone are the days when
citizens endured this with a fatalism born out of years of hopelessness, writes
Abhijit Das.
The National Campaign for the People's Right to Information
is asking citizens to put pressure on the Prime Minister to deliver on the UPA government's promise
of bringing in a 'progressive,
participatory and meaningful' right to
information law.
Power fluctuations of a different sort have hit the Tipaimukh dam and the Loktat
downstream project even before construction!
Himanshu Upadhyaya
observes the continuing tussle between various vested parties - the Centre, Manipur,
Bangladesh, and the people living in the affected areas.
Hit by metal mining and tree cutting, the Kapotagiri hill range in Karnataka was turning barren. But in the
last year, a local seer has worked with forest officials to bring back some of the green glory, reports
Shivaram Pailoor.
Akanksha began as an idea to give slum children time and space to simply be kids,
to laugh and play. It has evolved into a unique learning environment that not only provides
opportunities for them to gain employment but also in the process teaches tolerance and a
broader view of
the world.
Jemma Purdey
reports.
"There is a strong question mark about the possibility of ... providing potable drinking water to all villages by 2004, warned the Comptroller and Auditor General in 2002.
Himanshu Upadhyaya
on how the CAG foretold correctly.
