Women-led and women’s rights organizations are on the frontlines of today’s humanitarian crises—but many are at risk of disappearing. As global needs rise due to conflict, climate change, and displacement, deep cuts to foreign aid are threatening organizations that provide life-saving services for women and girls. In March 2025, UN …
the Naxalite attack at Orissa's Nayagarh town is not a wake-up call for the state. It is a big slap on its face. The busy township, hardly 100 kilometres from the state capital, is not a usual target for Naxalites. It could not be dismissed as a stray incident as …
IN the empty courtyard of Sajabhai Bodat's hut, there is nothing but a white, plastic chair propped against a mud wall in faded green. The chair holds a framed photograph of Sajabhai, who was recently killed by a police bullet. On the cow dung lined floor under the chair are …
The national economy is growing at near double-digit rates but neither industry nor non-agricultural activities in rural India have been able to provide livelihoods for millions of rural workers. It is this failure that underlies the spurt in rural violence that has highlighted once again the issue of the poor's …
THE last couple of decades have witnessed intense resistance movements challenging large-scale displacement caused, among others, by mines, dams, national parks and sanctuaries, bomb and missile-testing ranges, industry and urban expansion. Since 1986, thousands of affected people have also united to struggle against the mammoth displacement being caused by construction …
As the phase of implementation of the law approaches, there is palpable unease among the tribal populations. At Pipalkhura, forest Department personnel destroyed tribal homes and took away their belongings. THE road to Pipalkhura is long, rocky and dusty. Across a parched, hilly landscape occasionally broken by a village, farm …
The government of Somalia has appealed for an "urgent international help' for people in drought-affected regions of the country saying that the "transitional federal government cannot address the problem alone'. The drought has affected central and southern Somalia, with regions of Hiiraan, Galgadud, Mudug, Bay, Bakol and Gedo being the …
People in Kapurdi hamlet, some 30 km from Rajasthan's Barmer town, are unusually suspicious of strangers. They stop and question every outsider driving through the area. What is making them so wary is land acquisition for Jindal group's power plant and lignite mine coming up in the area. The government …
Faced by mounting protests and a 110-day-long hunger strike by a jailed indigenous rights activist, Chile's government has agreed to create a high commission for the rights of the indigenous Mapuche communities. The commission will work with the parliament to achieve full constitutional recognition of the native people. Activist Patricia …
prime minister Manmohan Singh recently laid the foundation stone for a controversial hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh. But the project has still not got clearance from the Union Ministry for Environment and Forests. The move has surprised many as the stone-laying ceremony of the Rs 16,000 crore project
the Vedanta controversy has acquired yet another twist, with the Orissa government trying to acquire more land in Kalahandi district's Lanjigarh block, the place where the company's one million tonne capacity alumina refinery is located. But there is confusion whether the land is for the refinery, which is already into …
Villagers in Kinnanore in Kerala's Kasaragod district called off a month-long agitation against bauxite mining. They relented on January 12 after Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan assured them that the sanction to the mines would be revoked. "The people, the panchayat and the political parties do not want this project,' …
Demanding to be heard: Following violence and lathicharge, the venue of public hearing was deserted, but the hearing was not cancelled. (Below) People blocked roads in protest after their objections were not heard at the meeting Violence during the public hearing for Jindal group's coal mine in Raigarh district of …
Since 1980 different pieces of legislations have been enacted for environmental conservation. These include the Forest (Conservation) Act (fca), 1980, the Environmental Protection Act (epa), 1986 and the Biological Diversity Act (bda), 2002. These have the potential to strengthen the conservation agenda. But they are at best being used to
The Sierra Leone government has called for an inquiry into the unrest over diamond-mining operations in the eastern district of Kono, where residents were killed during protests in the second week of December, 2007. The government has asked the mining company, Koidu Holdings, to suspend its operations in Kono's Koidu …
some people in Orissa's Jagatsinghpur district, in a complete turnaround from their earlier stand, agreed to give up land for the posco steel plant on January 5, but with conditions. They have asked for a 5 per cent share in the profits of the company, among other demands. In another …
The public hearing for Jindal group's fourth coal mine in Tamnar block in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, was conducted amidst protests on January 5. People claimed they were not informed of the hearing and they did not have the environmental impact assessment report or its executive summary
Hundreds of Vietnamese villagers ransacked a proposed titanium mining site on December 28, which they fear will pollute the soil and the ground water. Over 300 protesters destroyed machinery and pipelines at the site near the seaside of Tam Tien commune in central province of Quang Nam, say local media …
the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests (moef) cleared a controversial mining project by the Uranium Corporation of India Limited in Meghalaya last month, triggering fresh protests by local human rights and student groups in the state. The Rs 814 crore proposed Kylleng Pyndengso-hiong opencast uranium mining and processing project …
January 2, 2006. At least 13 tribal people and a policeman were killed in a clash at the Kalinganagar steel complex in Orissa's Jajpur district. The tribal people were protesting the construction of a boundary wall for a proposed mega steel plant by Tata Steel when the violence broke out …
