How can nonprofits ensure people’s participation in lawmaking? https://idronline.org/article/advocacy-government/how-can-nonprofits-ensure-peoples-participation-in-lawmaking/ by ANTARAA VASUDEV

In February 2014, heeding to the demand for greater transparency and legitimacy in lawmaking, the Ministry of Law and Justice drafted India’s Pre-Legislative Consultation Policy (PLCP).  since 2014 Civis (a nonprofit that works on co-creating laws) has observed an 805 percent increase in the number of consultations opened for public feedback—here’s Civis’s data on the accessibility of environmental laws.

Doctors, Psychiatrists Need to Read What Daily Hatred, Fear, Anxiety Means for Muslims in India https://thewire.in/rights/doctors-psychiatrists-need-to-read-what-daily-hatred-fear-anxiety-means-for-muslims-in-india by Prof Mohan Rao

The vast majority of the people from the Muslim community are being brought down to nothingness that mental health professionals in India do not recognise.

It is not just Muslims whose lives are traumatised, shortened, brutalised and filled with fear and anxiety, the same occurs among Hindus as well. They do not face brutality, nor are they threatened for their lives, but their lives, too, are restricted in imagination, in comfort and togetherness. Their souls are shrivelled, for they too act out of fear, a potent political weapon.

They miss out on the richness of Muslim culture and history, and get trapped in their own xenophobic ghettos. I am convinced that this strengthens patriarchy and the control of women’s lives among Hindus.

Study Says A New Lens Is Needed to Look at Mental Health of Indian Muslims https://thewire.in/health/new-lens-mental-health-india-muslims-communalism-trauma The report covers the social, emotional and financial burden that the Muslim community has had to face in the country due to the dramatic rise in communal polarisation and hate crimes over the past few years.  When violence, discrimination and humiliation are ongoing, their impact cannot be fully understood just through established clinical terms like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The trauma responses are also ongoing and cyclic and need a newer lens and approach to redefine the meanings of mental health, selfhood, resilience, and survival, says social activist and researcher Hasina Khan..

The loss of community, the study says, severely affects one’s sense of confidence and surety about navigating a difficult situation in legal cases or simply rebuilding one’s life after a violent incident. “An all-pervading sense of being made to feel powerless in front of a fascist state and hateful ideology, which has forced several Muslim victims of communal violence to change how they live their lives, is the most important point that has emerged from our work,”

“PTSD better describes the experiences of an American soldier who goes to Iraq to bomb and goes back to the safety of the United States. He’s having nightmares and fears related to the battlefield and his fears are imaginary. Whereas for a Palestinian in Gaza whose home was bombarded, the threat of having another bombardment is a very real one. It’s not imaginary. There is no ‘post’ because the trauma is repetitive and ongoing and continuous.” - https://qz.com/1521806/palestines-head-of-mental-health-services-says-ptsd-is-a-western-concept

The law, as exists, prohibits the act "in any polling area" .. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/100109554.cms Appeals to voters on social media outside polling area not under ambit of law: EC sources on Cong complaint against PM May 9, 2023

Section 126 specifically does not cover the use of social media or intermediaries during the silence period. It also does not cover violations outside the poll area, the sources said.  Section 126 of the Act restricts the public display of election matter in the polling area during the "silence period" thereby limiting its application only to the display of election matter in the polling area, they said. "Silence period" is for 48 hours ending with the time fixed for conclusion of polls.

The dilemma of the Muslim liberal https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/on-a-knifes-edge-by-s-irfan-habib-liberal-muslims-left-with-little-elbow-room-to-raise-genuine-concerns-within-community/article66524533.ece  S. IRFAN HABIB Faced with Hindutva hatred, the Muslim liberal is today sandwiched between two extremist groups. Feb 23, 2023

It is difficult to adhere to the new standards of patriotism thrown at them by the majoritarian “nationalists”. The secular space where a liberal Muslim or Hindu can prosper has shrunk dangerously. A liberal Muslim is sandwiched between two groups of extremists, one from her own community and the other, and more visibly vocal one today, the hydra-headed Hindutva’s foot soldiers and ideologues....

Most Muslims in India are converts but the reasons were diverse; although some were surely cases of forced conversion, many were attracted to Islam as an egalitarian and socially a seemingly less oppressive faith, which was a message spread through Sufi khanqahs as well. This hatred for the ‘other’ has peaked, or perhaps it has not yet, but we now see calls for genocide being made from the very heart of the capital at Jantar Mantar while the police remains a mute spectator...

In the midst of t...blatant communalism, we hear a call for peace and for all religions to be respected from the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat. Bhagwat also said that everyone who lives in India is a Hindu, as Hinduism is a way of life and Sanatana Dharma is a religion.

I see this merely as a façade to promote majoritarian politics. For me, as a liberal, anyone born in India is an Indian, he/she may later be a Hindu, Muslim, or even an atheist.

https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/the-role-of-liberal-muslims-in-india-today/article66524691.ece

Rise of Hindutva politics and the progressive Muslim  Feb 23, 2023  https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/looking-inward-progressive-muslim-voices-struggle-for-space-amid-rise-of-hindutva-politics/article66520174.ece The rise of Hindutva politics has further restricted the space for articulation of progressive views. A liberal Muslim must guard not just her personal freedoms but also actively resist the communal onslaught through democratic means. She must condemn every action of Muslim fanatics and Hindutva loonies. She must consistently demand accountability from institutions of the state. And while doing all of this, she must be prepared to be labelled fitna or even kafir for the personal choices she made in her own life! This is too much to ask from an ordinary citizen.  

But I see hope in ordinary Indians who are religious themselves and yet do not hate those belonging to other faiths. Hindutva may have scored electorally in our first-past-the-post system, but 60 per cent of Indians still do not vote for divisive ideologies. They are the silent majority who give me hope.

https://frontline.thehindu.com/the-nation/being-muslim-being-a-muslim-woman-personal-essay-by-syeda-hameed/article66524316.ece

Historical Evolution of Transgender Community in India  https://triumphias.com/blog/transgender-community-in-india-historical-evolution/

The third genders in India have emerged as a strong faction in the LGBT rights. In the contemporary time the Government of India introduced so many welfare policy and schemes such as, census, documentation, issuing of the citizenship ID Cards, issuing passports, social-economical development and constitutional safeguards for the transgender people. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a major initiative of the 11thFive Year Plan period which brought employment opportunities for transgender people. The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation is the National Urban Livelihood Mission and Healthcare facilities. The social, economic, political transformation, Housing, legal measures, Police Reforms, legal and constitutional safeguards to prevent human rights violations of the transgender community and institutional mechanisms  to address specific concerns of transgender people.

Venerable Tenzin Priyadarshi  on Developing Bodhicitta
https://youtu.be/scVIZxDrOSk

The unknown Ambedkar: India’s first labour minister https://theleaflet.in/the-unknown-ambedkar-indias-first-labour-minister/
Sanjoy Ghose·May 1, 2023

Ambedkar’s tryst with labour began when he was associated with the Bombay Textile Labour Union, formed in 1925 by moderates N.M. Joshi and R.R. Bakale...In 1936, Ambedkar formed the Independent Labour Party (ILP), which had a comprehensive manifesto on worker rights. In 1937, the party described itself as a “labour organisation” which mainly “advanced the welfare of labour classes” and was “committed to supporting state ownership and management wherever necessary”.

In the 1937 Indian provincial elections, the first under the Government of India Act, 1935, the ILP made a stunning debut by winning 15 of the 17 seats contested in the Bombay Legislative Assembly...

 https://twitter.com/TheDeshBhakt/status/1539990210565378053

India China Border Clash | Modi Govt hiding Aksai Chin truth? | Ep.2 - Deshbhakt की खुदाई! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cx16mzJS_tU
The Deshbhakt