SPRF
ABSTRACT Custodial torture and deaths are rampant in India, with reports suggesting that an average of 1800 people have died in police custody each year between 2016-2018. Lack of adequate sensitisation or human rights education of police personnel, a severe lacuna of policies and laws to incriminate police officers for committing custodial violence, as […]
ABSTRACT Domestic workers are an indispensable part of the everyday lives of a large segment of India’s urban population. However, in the absence of a national policy to recognise the specific nature of domestic work, their categorisation as ‘workers’ is merely theoretical. This issue brief highlights the isolated nature of domestic work in India, […]
ABSTRACT India, along with witnessing tremendous economic growth rates since the 1980s, has seen a surge in economic inequality as well. India was ranked 2nd in a recent UNDP report on growth in income inequality globally, and 147th out 157 countries in Oxfam’s Report on Commitment to Reducing Inequality. This brief seeks to analyse and […]
ABSTRACT When a ship reaches the end of its life, it is sent to a ship recycling yard to be recycled. Predominantly positioned in South Asian countries, the ship recycling industry is one of the many examples of global waste flows. Having evolved over the years, today the industry provides employment to thousands of people […]
ABSTRACT In a biodiversity-rich and developing country like India, protection, preservation, and promotion of traditional knowledge becomes especially important due to its huge economic potential. This brief delves deeper into issues like bio-piracy and the existing difficulties in protecting traditional knowledge, especially that which is indigenous and collectively owned in nature. It also looks at […]
ABSTRACT Sustainability has become the central concern in agricultural systems in India, as farmers, mostly small and marginal, are grappling with the environmental impact of chemical-intensive farming, declining farm incomes, as well as adverse impacts of climate change on crop yields. This issue brief, the second in SPRF’s series on Indian agriculture, analyses the policy […]
ABSTRACT The treatment of women in Indian societies is riddled with irony. Religion, tradition and mythology, originating from both the mainland as well as the hinterland, liken women to goddesses and believe them to be harbingers of wealth and prosperity. Yet, patriarchal and misogynistic tendencies deeply sewn into our fabric have resulted in India being […]
ABSTRACT The Indian legal system has long established a rehabilitative response to juvenile crimes. However, with the passing of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2015, a shift was made towards a more punitive approach for effectively curbing juvenile crimes. The 2015 Act allowed for children between the ages of 16 to […]
ABSTRACT For millennia, people have migrated in search of better economic opportunities and quality of life across the world. While international migration has tended to generate positive social and economic outcomes for both source and destination nations, it has also led to a surge in anti-immigrant sentiments and violent contestations between communities. The recent surge […]
ABSTRACT According to the World Bank, India has the third-largest higher education system in the world followed by the United States of America and China. However, the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) in higher education in India is merely 26.3%. In this context, this issue brief brings to fore the unnoticed challenges surrounding higher education in […]
ABSTRACT This is the second in SPRF’s series of issue briefs on India’s urban transition. Taking up the process of migration, one of the most important determinants of urbanisation, this brief attempts to understand the prominent trends in the movement of people across India over the last two decades, particularly into cities. It looks at […]
ABSTRACT The concept of ‘One Nation, One Election’ suggests the conduction of simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies once in five years. Currently, there are about 5-7 elections to the State Assemblies every year, a situation which ends up adversely impacting the processes of development and governance. Continual elections and the […]
CONTEXT Since the Brundtland Commission report (1987) defined its broad contours, sustainability and sustainable development have been integral to the global processes and understanding of production and growth. Rooted in the concept of shared responsibility, the Brundtland report defined Sustainable Development as: “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of […]
ABSTRACT The first in the Issue Brief Series on India’s Urban Transition, ‘Defining the Urban’ highlights the definitional issues with available data on urbanisation, with a special focus on Census Towns and the impact these ambiguous definitions have on the growth potential of these semi-urban spaces. CONTEXT India’s rapidly expanding urban population (see Figure 1) […]