THE recent notification of Indian Institute of Management-Ahmadabad(IIM-A) for the PhD programme in management, 2020 is the typical case where there is no provision to implement reservations for historically marginalised social groups. In the official notification, it had no provisions for an SC/ST (Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe) quota. This is in violation of the reservation mandated by the Constitution of India that makes it obligatory for all central educational institutions to reserve seats for each course and branch of study.

THIRD state conference of TNUEF was held on August 15-17 at Thanjavur, in the Cauvery Delta, soil of heroic struggle of poor agricultural labourers against both economic and social oppression, led by P Seenivasa Rao and P S Dhanuskodi.The TNUEF conference ended with mammoth rally on August 17, which was attended by nearly 20,000 people.  Sitaram Yechury, general secretary, CPI M) delivered a special address in the public meeting conducted at Thilagar Thidal. He urged all democratic sections to join the struggle against caste oppression.

THE draft of the New Education Policy(NEP) is profoundly regressive and overwhelmingly undemocratic. It continues to perpetuate the existing discrimination against the disabled. It fails to invoke a rights-based approach and refuses to break away from the traditional method of viewing disability.Despite ‘access’ being claimed to be a key “guiding principle”, non-availability of the draft in accessible formats, deprives large sections of the disabled an opportunity to go through a crucial document that will be shaping their lives and those of disabled children and adolescents.

THE persecutions reported against dalits, under the rule of Narendra Modi, are on the rise in India, establishing a similar scenario to the earlier regimes of the BJP government in the history of independent India.

ON December 20, thousands of activists of Dalit Shoshan Mukti Manch (DSMM) marched through the streets of Delhi and held a protest demonstration at the Parliament Street. They gave a clarion call to defeat “Manuvadi BJP” in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to defend dalit rights and to save the constitution.K Radhakrishnan, president, DSMM and former speaker of Kerala assembly termed the Modi led BJP government anti-Dalit and said four and half years have passed but this government did not take a single step to deliver justice to the dalit community of the country.