THE National Platform for the Rights of the Disabled (NPRD) has written to prime minister Narendra Modi on May 25 urging him to withdraw the notification renaming the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities as the “department of empowerment of persons with disabilities (divyangjan)”. They had written to him earlier on January 22, 2016 urging him to shelve any plan that the government may have to use the term “divyang” to address people with disabilities.

IN a statement issued on May 24 by the Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust (SAHMAT), the signatories to which were eminent academicians, writers and artists, it has strongly condemned the Chhattisgarh government and its police force for using intimidation and threats of a criminal case against academics and political activists investigating human rights abuses in the southern parts of the state, especially Bastar and Dantewada. A fact finding team consisting of Prof. Archana Prasad, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Prof.

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.