Dear Reader,

In the third week of January, The Probe discovered a disturbing pattern of disappearances of people, including women and children, from Muzaffarnagar and Saharanpur in Uttar Pradesh. Painstaking investigations, over weeks, published on February 3, revealed that 10 families, 56 persons, including 26 children, were trafficked to Moga in Punjab and forced into bonded labour at a brick kiln. They worked under harrowing and inhuman conditions without wages—an instance of modern-day slavery.

Swift action by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), directing the district administration to act proactively following the publication of The Probe’s report, led to the rescue of all except two families who remain unaccounted for. Despite their liberation, the rescued families still face an uncertain future, grappling with challenges related to rehabilitation and reintegration into society. This case underscores the persistence of bonded labour in India despite laws and legislation.

Social media platforms, despite their many frailties, are seen to have played a hand in the democratisation of public discourse and given a voice to the unheard. This has also provided a low-cost pulpit for independent scribes and media publications to take their journalism to the people without the fetters of entrenched interests and at the same time earn reasonable revenues.

Now, this perceived opportunity for independent media is facing a challenge. The platforms, either goaded by the powers that be or on their whim, resort to indirect censorship through arbitrary powers of demonetisation, shadow bans, and de-platforming. This ‘gatekeeping’, furthered by opaque algorithms and arbitrary redressal mechanisms, threatens independent journalism’s sustainability. Medianama reports that this is bolstering the already stifling stranglehold of Big Tech on news and content monetisation.

Way back in 1996, the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA), was enacted to revive traditional self-governance in tribal communities within Scheduled Areas. The Act grants Gram Sabhas rights over customary resources, including forest produce, minerals, and water bodies, as well as control over local institutions. It was designed to safeguard tribal communities from unbridled encroachment into their land and common assets. However, nearly three decades later, while eight of the ten states with Scheduled Areas have published PESA rules, Jharkhand and Odisha are yet to do so.

In Jharkhand, more than 26 percent of the population—nearly nine million people—are tribal. Main Bhi Bharath travelled to Gumla district to examine PESA’s implementation and found that its core objectives have been waylaid by debates on broader cultural and religious identities, compounded by a general distrust of the government’s intentions. While such discourse has its place, it also risks further delaying PESA’s implementation—legislation passed almost three decades ago—thereby hindering the empowerment of tribal communities and diluting the focus on tribal rights and self-governance.

The appointment of vice-chancellors in Indian universities has long been contentious, marked by conflicts between the central and state governments over the limited autonomy of states in the selection process. This debate is further complicated by discussions on University Grants Commission (UGC) regulations and concerns over political interference. The recently proposed UGC draft regulations for 2025 on the appointment and promotion of academic staff have reignited these concerns.

The India Forum argues that these regulations exceed the UGC’s authority, increasing government involvement in university governance and potentially exacerbating existing issues of political interference. The article underscores the urgent need for the UGC to establish safeguards that prioritise merit-based selections while addressing the needs of both students and faculty to enhance the quality of higher education in India.

For more such stories from the grantees this week, please read on.

Warmly,

Sunil Rajshekhar
IPSMF