THE All India Loco Running Staff Association has written to the minister of railways, Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu on the reigning hot summer in our country and its adverse effect on the safety, health and work place environment of the loco pilots of Indian railway. According to the reports of the meteorological department, an increase of about 2 degrees to 6 degrees centigrade above normal in atmospheric temperature has been recorded in our country during this summer season compared to the past and it is anticipated that the condition would prevail until the arrival of normal monsoon.

PART 1 Challenging Hindu Orthodoxy AS part of the observance of the 125th anniversary of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar, the Sangh Parivar including its top leaders in parliament have willfully distorted and thereby sought to destroy the legacy of his multifaceted brilliant contributions in the making of independent India.One such aspect is Dr Ambedkar’s understanding of the subjugation of women in India, its links with the system of Chaturvarna and the urgent need for reform within Hindu laws.

THIS year, the Sundarayya Memorial Lecture was organised on the theme, ‘Health Sector – Current Situation – Solutions’. The programme was organised at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram on May 19 in connection with the 31st death anniversary of Comrade Puchalapalli Sundarayya, founder general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).Professor K Srinatha Reddy, chairman of Public Health Foundation of India, delivered the memorial lecture.

THE second unit conference of SFI AMU unit was successfully held on May 8, on the theme of attack on educational institutes and on right to dissent.  Earlier, the permission for the conference was explicitly denied by the proctorial office. The conference started with flag hoisting and paying tributes to the martyrs. Prof. Irfan Habib in his inaugural address asked the students of Aligarh Muslim University, to fight against all type of communal forces, not only RSS-BJP led Hindu communal forces, but Muslim and Sikh communal forces also.

THE International Labour Organisation (ILO) brings out every year a publication called World Employment and Social Outlook. The current year’s report, released on May 18, is sub-titled “Transforming Jobs to End Poverty”. It provides estimates of the level of world poverty and of the amount of income transfers to the poor required for ending world poverty.Before getting to these estimates, it is worth discussing how poverty is defined by the ILO.