Tribals are victims of systemic exploitation: PM

October 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni Wednesday vigorously defended the right of tribals on forest land and said that "unscrupulous elements mislead and use them to further their interests". "Violence has no place in this century but we have to see the reasons behind it.

October 13th, 2009 RANCHI - With an eye to the upcoming Jharkhand assembly elections, the Congress party is keen to woo the tribals and Dalits of the state who constitute a sizeable chunk of the population. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi will pay a two-day visit to the state from Wednesday.

September 2nd, 2009 HYDERABAD - It is not just state-of-the-art technology that is being deployed to trace the missing helicopter carrying Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the authorities are also using the services of the tribals living in the dense Nallamalla forests.

August 14th, 2009 Uruguay Senate OKs millions for dirty war victimsMONTEVIDEO, Uruguay — Uruguay's ruling party wants to pay $17.4 million in reparations to victims of state oppression during its dictatorship. A reparations bill passed the Senate on Wednesday and now goes to the lower house of the legislature, where the ruling party has a comfortable majority, and leftist President Tabare Vazquez is expected to sign it.

August 5th, 2009 AGARTALA - The Congress-led Assam government is learning from the Left Front government in Tripura how to effectively run autonomous district councils for the tribal people. A five-member ministerial team led by Assam Revenue Minister Bhumidhar Barman is on a three-day visit to Tripura to study the functioning of the politically important Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC), which provides tribals constitutional rights to develop their socio-economic position.

July 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Union Government has decided to bring cases of sexual harassment of domestic helps within the scope of proposed law to prevent exploitation of woman at work places. Replying to a question in Lok Sabha today, Union Minister for Woman and Child Development Krishna Tirath said the proposed law would also deal with the incidents against Dalit women who are brought to cities to work as domestic help.

June 27th, 2009 KOLKATA - A senior adviser to West Bengal's Left Front government resigned Saturday to protest against the "torture" of tribals in the state's Lalgarh area that has just been cleared of armed Maoists who had declared it a "liberated" zone. "I have served this government with all sincerity.

June 17th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Saying that New Delhi is not doing enough to curb human smuggling, the US has placed India on Tier 2 watch list of countries in a report on global trafficking released by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. "India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation," said the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report released by Clinton Tuesday.

June 16th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The US has placed India on tier 2 watch list of countries in a report on human trafficking, saying New Delhi is not doing enough to address the issue. "India is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation," said the 2009 Trafficking in Persons Report released by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Tuesday.

May 12th, 2009 UN: forced laborers losing $21 billion a yearGENEVA — The United Nations says forced labor is costing $21 billion a year to children trapped in sweatshops, migrants picking fruit and building homes, and illegal immigrants indebted to their smugglers. The report released Tuesday did not examine losses incurred by prostitutes and victims of sex trafficking, but based its findings on an estimate that 12.3 million people around the world are employed in other forms of forced labor.

May 8th, 2009 SEC chief backs 'systemic risk council' ideaWASHINGTON — The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission favors a new proposal for federal regulators sharing oversight of companies that pose financial risks to the economy. SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro said she's "inclined toward" the idea floated this week by the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

April 15th, 2009 BHUBANESWAR - Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi Wednesday blamed the Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's government for the communal violence in Orissa last year. 'Clashes took place in the name of religion in Kandhamal and elsewhere and the state government was responsible for spreading disharmony and hatred,' Gandhi told an election rally in Kendrapada town, about 100 km from here.

February 2nd, 2009 KOLKATA - Tribal groups Tuesday blocked several roads in West Bengal's Maoist-dominated West Midnapore district, protesting the death of two tribal activists in a clash with Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) supporters Monday. 'Activists of Police Santras Birodhi Janagan Committee (Anti-police atrocity committee) blocked several areas today (Tuesday) morning in and around West Midnapore's Lalgarh locality,' West Bengal Inspector General (Law and Order) Raj Kanojia told IANS.

February 1st, 2009 KOLKATA - Two tribals were killed in a clash with activists of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) in West Bengal, the police said Monday. The clash broke out between the CPI-M activists and Maoist-backed tribals over the death of CPI-M leader Nandalal Pal.

January 24th, 2009 SILIGURI - After facing stiff resistance from the tribals of north Bengal's Dooars to its demand for inclusion of the area in the proposed Gorkhaland, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) Sunday doled out sops, promising to fund the education of tribals in the region. 'This year, we will bear the education expenses from the primary to the university level for 300 Dooars tribals coming under the BPL category.