Women have become soft targets in the government’s sterilization drive, which has caused many deaths. Swapna Mujamdar sees in the ‘target approach’ a violation of women’s reproductive rights

As an insider, Amitabh Thakur knows the Indian Administrative Service well. Here, the UP cadre officer, who seeks a revamp of the system, explains how the British legacy has lost its relevance

Despite their leader, Dayamani Barla’s incarceration, tribals of Nagri in Jharkhand refuse to let go their farmland for elite institutions and are continuing their fight, says Moushumi Basu

One Billion Rising is an ongoing global campaign to fight violence against women. With a slogan ‘Strike, Dance, Rise’, it is also about building bridges and friendships, says Pamela Philipose

As the gang-rape of a girl in New Delhi has outraged an entire nation, an email from a reader to P C Vinoj Kumar wants to know what happened to the man who stripped an Adivasi woman in public

Irom Sharmila has become an icon for civil rights activists as she has been on a fast in Manipur for over 12 years now. Is it time she changes the mode of protest? Ninglun Hanghal checks out

The Bishops of Mannar, Jaffna, Anuradhapura, Galle, and Kurunegala, have sought the release of 3 Jaffna University students who have been arrested by the Terrorism Investigation Department

A campaign is on in Himachal Pradesh against ‘son preference’, which has reaching alarming levels in a district like Una where there are just 870 females per 1000 males, says Aditi Bishnoi

Though Sri Lanka habitually rejects recommendations made under the Universal Periodic Review of UNHRC, there is hope for Tamils as the world is taking note of their problem, says Paul Newman

The student unrest in Jaffna University following the Sri Lankan army’s brutal attempt to foil the observation of ‘Heroes Day’ in the campus has whipped up emotions in TN, says Radhika Giri

Speakers at a seminar in the Taj city said that despite a "Himalayan disaster" like the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984, government agencies and voluntary groups have learnt no lessons

A Rotary club is quietly working among the Irular tribe at a village 60 km from Chennai with the goal of changing the lives of people there, reports Radhika Giri amazed by what she saw there

In a US bus, Rosa Parks refused to vacate her seat for a white man and asserted Black rights 57 years ago, but in TN Dalits have to still vacate seats for the upper castes, says G Babu Jayakumar

Better healthcare and increased awareness have helped control the spread of HIV/AIDS, doctors at an AIDS speciality hospital in Mysore tell Brij Khandelwal on the eve of World AIDS Day

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act needs implementation in ‘form and spirit’, says Sonal Kellogg, pointing to a plethora of scams that were unearthed in Bihar’s Barawan panchyat