India

The social stigma around the transgender community is changing and taking a turn for the better. But this change may be slower than expected if we take into consideration the discrimination the transgender community faces not just in a particular aspect but in all walks of life. They are denied education and employment opportunities, discriminated against in their homes, and looked down upon by society. Even more so, they are ridiculed and made fun of and act as a source of amusement which people get by humiliating such people. The authors, through this article, try to explore the discrimination and humiliation faced by transgender people in an Indian prison and emphasise upon the advisory given by the ministry of home affairs regarding the provision of separate housing cells for people belonging to these marginalised communities. The authors try to explore the societal gap which exists acting as an imminent factor in the unequal treatment and harassment of transgender inmates. The paper touches upon the various problems faced by transgender inmates in Indian Prisons and offers solutions which could help provide such inmates with a habitable and reputable environment to be detained in. The paper includes a descriptive analysis of the issue at hand with the solutions and the change in perspective that society needs to leave behind to prevent the stigmatisation of the transgender community.

The official statistics show that poverty in Odisha has reduced faster during the second period (2004-05 to 2011-12) compared to the first period (1993-94 to 2004-05). This paper attempts to study the impact of the public distribution system (PDS) on poverty reduction in Odisha during the 2nd period. The NSSO unit level data of the 61st (2004-05) and 68th (2011-12) rounds of consumer expenditure survey (CES) has been used for the estimation of poverty with and without income transfer through PDS. The PDS plays a vital role in poverty reduction in Odisha by raising the real income during the post-reform period, especially from 2004-05 to 2011-12.

Since the military takeover of power in Myanmar at the beginning of last year, widespread violence, internal displacement, chaos, and human misery has set off a catastrophic refugee crisis in South Asia. As the military crackdown on protesting civilian shows no signs of abating, thousands of Myanmar citizens have left their homes without any hope of returning soon. Of those who fled Myanmar, many sought asylums in India. However, while India condemned the coup and the ongoing violence, it has shown scant regard to the protection of the rights of asylum-seekers. Even after a year since the coup, India refuses to accept those who crossed the border out of fear of persecution at the hands of the military as refugees. This article focuses on India’s obligations towards the refugees staying in the country. It argues that despite India being a non-signatory to the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, India’s constitutional principles, refugee-related judicial pronouncements, and the various international conventions it has adopted obligate it to protect the refugees on its soil.

History’s movements are unevenly paced, sometimes slow like a funeral march and sometimes frisky like the current rates of inflation. They are, however, always recursively ironic. It seems like a lifetime but it was only two months ago on September 8, 2022, that the reign of Queen Elizabeth II of England ended. It was of course, in the nature of things, her first and only death. Now we have another first that has taken over the news: the appointment of a ‘person of Indian origin’ as the British Prime Minister. But before it is lost to public memory, this article seeks to present a contemporaneous account of the elaborate ceremonies that marked the passing of Britain’s first postcolonial monarch - and their possible import. It analyzes the imagery of a ‘Gracious Sovereign’, as opposed to Foucault’s putative idea of a ‘Grotesque Sovereign’, that recently animated our fast-paced, visually dominated, conspiracy theory-laden world in an age of grave political turbulence and psychological ambivalence.