A seven-member delegation from the Bar Council of India (BCI) will meet the judges of the Supreme Court in a bid to resolve the controversy over assignment of cases by the Chief Justice of India.

"We have unanimously decided to form a 7-member delegation of the Council who will meet honourable judges of the Supreme Court," BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra told journalists on Saturday. "We want that the matter be solved at the earliest."

Mishra was addressing a press conference after a BCI meeting was called earlier in the day to discuss an unprecedented decision by four of the five senior-most judges of the apex court to publicly air their grievances with CJI Dipak Misra.

ALSO READ: In One Stroke, The Dynamics Of The Indian Supreme Court Have Forever Changed

"We've given an opportunity to Rahul Gandhi & political parties to talk about our judiciary, it's unfortunate," added Mishra. "On behalf of Bar Council of India, I request him & other political parties to not politicise the matter."

Prime Minister and law minister had said yesterday itself that it is judiciary's internal matter and govt won't be interfering in the matter, and we appreciate the government's stand: Manan Kumar Mishra, Chairman, Bar Council of India pic.twitter.com/gjmoEioxHc

— ANI (@ANI) January 13, 2018

Calling the issue a "family matter", Mishra claimed the issue will be resolved soon.

On Friday, four of the five senior-most judges in the Supreme Court broke rank with the CJI to raise concerns on how sensitive cases were being assigned to certain judges.

"There have been instances where case having far reaching consequences for the Nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justices of the Court selectively to the benches 'of their preference' without any rationale basis for such assignment. This must be guarded against at all costs," they wrote in a letter to CJI earlier last year.

"The four of us are convinced that unless this institution is preserved and it maintains its equanimity, democracy will not survive in this country," said Justice Chelameswar, the second senior-most judge of the apex court.

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More than two weeks after the daughter of a temple priest went missing from Ghaziabad, her mutilated body has been found in a sugarcane field in the neighboring district of Meerut.

The 15-year-old was allegedly kidnapped, gang raped and murdered.

The Times of India reported that the Class X student's body bore marks of torture with cigarette butts.

Bipin Kumar, a neighbor, toldThe Indian Express, "Her father, a local priest, went with police to Meerut. He could not identify her as her face was swollen. She was identified by her mother."

The teenager's father claimed that the police did not act on the complaint which he filed shortly after his daughter went missing on the evening of 26th December from the Modi Nagar area of Ghaziabad.

"Some youths had abducted my daughter. I had got a complaint registered at the Modinagar police station and also produced a mobile number of one the kidnappers, but the police didn't take any effort to trace them," the father told TOI.

The Indian Express reported that Modi Nagar Deputy Superintendent of Police has been transferred and the local police station in-charge suspended for dereliction of duty.

Arvind Kumar Maurya, the superintendent of police in rural Ghaziabad, said that the body has been sent for an autopsy and several teams have been formed to investigate the case.

Both newspapers reported that the deceased had tried to conceal a mobile phone from her family before she disappeared.

Kumar, the neighbor, told IE, "Her mother caught talking on the phone. She asked her how she got the phone, and the girl told her a friend had given it to her. She was beaten up by her mother, who threw the phone into the toilet. A day later, the girl stepped out of the house, where a tap is set up. People thought she had gone to wash her hands, but a while later, she disappeared."

The mother told TOI that the girl had taken the SIM out of the phone and destroyed it.

Local residents staged protests on Saturday.

DHAKA/YANGON - Hamid Hussain, a 71-year-old Rohingya Muslim farmer, first fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in 1992. He went home the next year under a repatriation deal between the two neighbours, only to repeat the journey last September when violence flared once more.

Officials from Myanmar and Bangladesh meet on Monday to discuss how to implement another deal, signed on Nov. 23, on the return of more than 650,000 Rohingya who have escaped an army crackdown since late August. Hussain is one of many who say they fear this settlement may be no more permanent than the last.

"Bangladesh authorities had assured us that Myanmar would give us back our rights, that we would be able to live peacefully," said Hussain, who now lives in a makeshift refugee camp in southeast Bangladesh.

"We went back but nothing changed. I will go back again only if our rights and safety are guaranteed - forever."

Buddhist-majority Myanmar has for years denied Rohingya citizenship, freedom of movement and access to many basic services such as healthcare and education. They are considered illegal immigrants from mainly Muslim Bangladesh.

The authorities have said returnees could apply for citizenship if they can show their forebears have lived in Myanmar. But the latest deal - like the one in 1992 - does not guarantee citizenship and it is unclear how many would qualify.

Monday's meeting in Myanmar's capital Naypyitaw will be the first for a joint working group set up to hammer out the details of the November repatriation agreement. The group is made up of civil servants from both countries.

Two senior Bangladesh officials who are involved in the talks acknowledged that much was left to be resolved and it was unclear when the first refugees could actually return. One of the key issues to be worked out was how the process for jointly verifying the identities of returnees would work, they said.

"Any return is chaotic and complex," said Shahidul Haque, Bangladesh's top foreign ministry official who will lead Dhaka's 14-member team in the talks. "The challenge is to create an environment conducive for their return."

Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay said returnees would be able to apply for citizenship "after they pass the verification process".

Zaw Htay added that Myanmar had proposed that a group of 500 Hindus who fled to Bangladesh and have already agreed to be repatriated, alongside 500 Muslims, could form the first batch of returnees. "The first repatriation is important - we can learn from the experiences, good or bad," he said.

MYANMAR SETS UP CAMPS

Bangladesh officials said they would begin the process this month by sharing with Myanmar authorities a list of 100,000 Rohingya, picked at random from among registered refugees.

Haque said Myanmar officials would vet the names against their records of residents before the August exodus, and those approved would then be asked if they wanted to go back.

Refugees without documents would be asked to identify streets, villages and other landmarks near their former homes as proof of their right to return, said Haque.

A Myanmar agency set up to oversee repatriation said in a statement on Thursday that two temporary "repatriation and assessment camps" and one other site to accommodate returnees had been set up.

Myint Kyaing, permanent secretary at Myanmar's Ministry of Labour, Immigration and Population, told Reuters earlier this month Myanmar would be ready to begin processing least 150 people a day through each of the two camps by Jan. 23.

As well as checking their credentials as residents of Myanmar, he said, authorities would check returnees against lists of suspected "terrorists".

Myint Kyaing declined to comment on how long the repatriation would take but conceded the process after the 1992 agreement had taken more than 10 years.

United Nations agencies working in the camps clustered around Cox's Bazar, in southeastern Bangladesh, have voiced scepticism about the resettlement plans.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration said their offers to help with the process have not been taken up by the two countries.

"Further measures are needed to ensure safe, voluntary and sustainable repatriation of refugees to their places of origin and to address the underlying root causes of the crisis," said Caroline Gluck, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Cox's Bazar.

The UNHCR says refugees it has surveyed want guarantees that international agencies will be involved in overseeing the process and more information about the security situation in their home areas.

WHO WILL GO? WHO WILL PAY?

While many Rohingya say they want to go back to Myanmar, most of the more than a dozen who spoke to Reuters said they were scared to do so now.

"I am not going back. No one's going back," said Hafizulla, a 37-year-old Rohingya man. "We are scared to go back without any U.N. intervention. They can accuse us later, they can arrest us. They may accuse us of helping the militants."

The military offensive the refugees fled, which was prompted by Rohingya insurgent attacks on police and army posts, has been described by the United States and U.N. as ethnic cleansing. Myanmar rejects that, saying troops did not target civilians.

"You can have all the agreements in the world, and set up all the reception centres and everything, but it won't make a difference unless the conditions in Myanmar are such that people feel confident that they can go back and live in peace, and have equal rights," said a Western diplomat in Dhaka.

The second Bangladesh official, Refugee Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner Mohammed Abul Kalam, said the "Rohingyas' reluctance to go back" was an issue that needed to be addressed.

He said the repatriation process would cost "millions of dollars" but funding details had not yet been agreed and were not expected to be discussed at Monday's meeting.

Japan, one of Myanmar's biggest aid donors, said on Friday it was giving an emergency grant of around $3 million to help with the return of the Rohingya.

NEW DELHI -- Four former senior Indian judges on Sunday released a letter in support of a group of Supreme Court judges who on Friday openly criticised the way the top court was functioning.

The retired judges — including a former Supreme Court judge and a chief justice of the Delhi High Court — confirmed they had issued an open letter to the Chief Justice of India after four Supreme Court judges held a press conference on Friday in which one of them warned that the nation's democracy was under threat because of the way the top court was being run.

The four sitting judges of the Supreme Court had criticised distribution of cases to judges and raised concerns about judicial appointments in the nation's highest court under Chief Justice Dipak Misra.

Misra has not responded to their allegations.

"We agree with the four judges that though the chief justice of India is the master of roster and can designate benches for allocation of work, this does not mean that it can be done in an arbitrary manner such that sensitive and important cases are sent to hand-picked benches of junior judges by the chief justice," the former judges said in the open letter on Sunday.

Reuters was able to confirm that the letter was drafted and signed by four former judges P.B.Sawant, A.P.Shah, K. Chandru and H. Suresh.

Two of the retired judges said it was important to support the group of Supreme Court judges because they had taken the bold step of speaking out publicly to protect the sanctity of the most important institution of India.

Friday's public outburst by judges prompted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to hold an emergency meeting with his law minister on Friday but the government has refused to comment.

The four former judges said in the statement that all rules and norms must be laid down clearly for allocation of cases.

"This must be done immediately to restore public confidence in the judiciary and in the Supreme Court," the former judges said.

Every year, the United Nations (UN) observes December 5 as the International Volunteer Day. The UN estimates that there are over 1 billion volunteers globally, often in their own home countries in efforts that seek to transform their communities. To rightly acknowledge this contribution, the theme for the 2017 International Volunteer Day is "Volunteers Act First. Here. Everywhere", to underscore their role in serving communities affected by natural disasters, armed conflicts, food crises, health emergencies and forced migration.

Volunteerism as a transformative tool

The State of the World's Volunteerism Report (2015) released by UN Volunteer Programme (under the aegis of UNDP) defines volunteerism as "activities undertaken of free will, for the general public good and where monetary reward is not the principal motivating factor." The power of volunteerism lies in its potential to transform not only the communities that the volunteer serves but also themselves in the process.

Closer to home, Kozhikode district in Kerala saw a number of volunteer run community initiatives, enabled by the District administration under the umbrella initiative "Compassionate Kozhikode", launched in 2015. What this programme demonstrated is that age was no bar for volunteering and neither was one's social origins. Volunteers from all walks of life — students, teachers, psychiatrists, architects and social workers — actively contributed to the revamping of the mental health facilities in Kozhikode. A community owned project named "Operation Sulaimani" to tackle hunger with 'dignity', that has till date catered to more than 40,000 beneficiaries, is also entirely volunteer-driven.

A community owned project named "Operation Sulaimani" to tackle hunger with 'dignity', that has till date catered to more than 40,000 beneficiaries, is also entirely volunteer-driven.

What followed in these cases was a 'give and take' relationship between the volunteers and the communities, with an unprecedented emotional investment by the volunteers, reiterating the view that volunteerism is ultimately an extension of human relationships. In our ever changing, fast-paced, digitalized lives where quality of real-time human interactions is deteriorating, volunteering presents an opportunity to delve deeper into motives beyond money and more importantly, to create and nurture compassionate communities.

In our ever changing, fast-paced, digitalized lives where quality of real-time human interactions is deteriorating, volunteering presents an opportunity to delve deeper into motives beyond money...

Conflict resolution and community ownership

Compassion - to be distinguished from charity or benevolence - can also be an effective administrative tool for resolution of conflicts, be it at the local, national, regional or the global level. Many conflicts often stem from insecurities and anxieties, fueled by a lack of empathy. In such contexts, actively involving children and the youth to work in an area affected by communal riots or enabling them to spend time at an old age home can gradually alter perspectives and go beyond the narrow divides set by class, caste or religion.

In Kozhikode, another spillover effect of the volunteer-run initiatives was a greater sense of ownership and solidarity among the community members. For instance, the initiative "Manichitrathoonu" involved cleaning up of public spaces like streets, walls, bus stops etc and decorating them with paintings, which saw a great turnout of volunteers - both local citizens from different age groups and even international tourists. The increased sense of ownership resulted in local citizens actively thwarting miscreants from vandalizing the cleaned up areas. Unlike in a conventional top-down model where ownership is enforced through rule books and fines, this participatory approach led to growing civic sense and buy-in of the idea.

The increased sense of ownership resulted in local citizens actively thwarting miscreants from vandalizing the cleaned up areas.

Getting them on board

The initiation for volunteers can be ideally done through informal gatherings that include "colorful and fun" activities such as painting public spaces. This slowly sets the ground for them to get involved in more formalized modes of engagement such as working with old age groups, mental health patients or the differently abled.

To attract and sustain the interest and enthusiasm of volunteers, adopting innovative ways of engagement is crucial. Technology in this regard is a great enabler. An example of a good attempt in this regard has been the 'DigiSevak' project, an online volunteering platform run by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology which aims to connect and match various government departments with the skills and interests of volunteers registered on the same. Also, the government should be willing to move away from traditional approaches of citizen engagement to more informal platforms such as social media, where hierarchies are sublimated.

The government should be willing to move away from traditional approaches of citizen engagement to more informal platforms such as social media, where hierarchies are sublimated.

Volunteerism and governance: Possibilities for India

The State of the World's Volunteerism Report (2015) of the UN themed "transforming governance" illustrated through national and local case studies from countries such as Kenya, Lebanon, Brazil and Bangladesh, the role played by volunteers in contributing to the 'good governance' agenda by improving participation, accountability and responsiveness.

In India, the idea of volunteerism, often translates into the idea of "Seva" (selfless service), practiced in different religious denominations. But volunteerism also transcends religious boundaries. Formal institutions that exalt volunteerism too exist in India.

But volunteerism also transcends religious boundaries. Formal institutions that exalt volunteerism too exist in India.

The legacy of National Service Scheme (NSS) dates back to 1969 as one of the oldest government-sponsored volunteer initiatives, with offshoots in schools and universities across the country. However, there is a need to mainstream such disparate initiatives to ensure that they don't limit their scope to specific religious groups or student run clubs but involve each and every citizen. In that sense, the idea of volunteerism as a culture still needs to be inculcated into the Indian ethos.

This presents a great opportunity for the Indian government to tap into the massive reserve of human resources for nation-building. For instance, with over a population of 1.3 billion, India can tap the potential of its working age population, say over 50 billion people, who can contribute an hour weekly, to locally and nationally relevant projects.

With over a population of 1.3 billion, India can tap the potential of its working age population, say over 50 billion people, who can contribute an hour weekly, to locally and nationally relevant projects.

A national volunteer framework and legislation would be a right step in this direction. This would act as a guideline for policy makers and implementing entities at the district and local levels – government departments, schools, universities - to adapt it to their respective contexts for mobilizing volunteer participation. This can also bring in more legitimacy to the exercise and serve as an incentive for implementing entities at the district and local levels to encourage volunteer-led initiatives.

This partnership driven model can be premised on multi-stakeholder alliances with academia, NGOs, international organizations such as the UN and other actors to understand the needs and priorities in different areas – be it disaster management, education, primary health etc and match it with the relevant skill sets of a national pool of volunteers.

Ultimately, outside any formal structures and frameworks, the litmus test to embrace volunteerism should be compassion, which underscores the evolution of an individual, leading to the creation of more compassionate communities.

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(The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.)

Bigg Boss S11 is about to get over. With it will also end a hundred days long ritual to diligently sit in front of the television, which otherwise looks like a dumb idiot box, for a one-hour daily dose of magic potion. The show has not just been a television series for us -- the Bigg Boss fans -- but also an integral part of the way we have been leading our lives three months in a year in the last decade. Will we ever trade it for a season of GOT or Quantico? Bigg No! There hasn't and won't ever be anything bigger than the Bigg B.

Well, if you have found this as a foolish and silly write-up on a show that doesn't even deserve a spew, I won't be amazed. That is what more than half the people I meet think of it and worse still, think of me just because I love watching Bigg Boss.

Anyone who ardently follows this reality show is looked upon like a lost Martian on a planet of the intellectuals. While the silly looking Martian would be happily enjoying his/her quarterly escapade into the world of a virtual reality, the intellectuals would be busy judging them - how classless, distasteful, dramatic slaves of reality television they are! Must be the people who fight, catcall, bitch around and gossip in their real life too! How do they even stand so much of noise and cacophony day after day?

They unashamedly put us under scanner of their sophisticated mind which is funnily conditioned to qualify the worthiness of a person by the kind of television serial he watches.

I have also found people who have unapologetically come up to me and advised that becoming a BB fan would either get me mentally depressed, frustrated with life or invoke in me criminal behaviour.

In fact, I have also found people who have unapologetically come up to me and advised that becoming a BB fan would either get me mentally depressed, frustrated with life or invoke in me criminal behaviour. Bingo! How smartly the Bigg Boss haters have claimed their right to read our minds and make a negative personality profile of those who follow a show they think is full of drama, losers and controversies. So much for just watching a TV show that is scripted for fun! Am I not bemused?

Frankly speaking, it is nothing new to the BB fans. Our brains have got rewired to get judged and nudged, a small cost we pay for watching a show which is actually full of entertainment. We have learnt to pass off their cold stares with a pinch of salt and no hoots, a lesson we have learnt from the house inmates, season after season.

As a people's manager working in Corporate Human Resource for over a decade, the show has been perfect entertainment to me. Despite the accusations of being scripted, the plot never fails to bring forth finer nuances of human behaviour. From conflict to negotiation, sustaining competitive advantage to team building, human psychology to behaviour dynamics, Bigg Boss is like an open case study for playful management students.

I bet an ardent viewer would not only play the reality game along with the inmates, but also be able to analyse, predict, graphically represent and even make statistical scatter plots of the series.

I bet an ardent viewer would not only play the reality game along with the inmates, but also be able to analyse, predict, graphically represent and even make statistical scatter plots of the series. Almost like a hooking video simulation! For every one person who thinks of BB as a useless investment of time, there would be someone who would be using it for perfecting mind games. The balance never fails!

Besides, it is funnily impressive to see a reflection of oneself in inmates of the Bigg Boss house, emoting our secret frustrations and making tough choices in difficult circumstances. Where else does one get three months of interesting content to keep discussing about, anywhere anytime?

There is a strange magnetic attraction between BB fans who manage to spot their fraternity even in a crowd of hundreds. Even on Twitter too, which is flooded with teams pitching in their favourites or trolling the closest rivals under myriad hashtags.

When one BB fan happens to meet another in a common friend's party, nothing would stop them from chatting about who is whose favourite or who gets eliminated from the house next?

So when one BB fan happens to meet another in a common friend's party, nothing would stop them from chatting about who is whose favourite or who gets eliminated from the house next? Don't find it funny if you catch them ditching the party fun to vote for their contenders instead. Try interrupting and be prepared for a show inspired real drama!

Even worse would be asking a BB fan to skip the one-hour slot for some personal obligation, especially on the weekend, when the arbitrator Mr. Khan arrives in his regular swag to catch the inmates off guard and do some interesting moral policing. If it was not for following up on Voot, weekend for three months would be staying put at home glued to the TV.

Nevertheless, there is indeed something about the show that has pulled people into two extreme poles – those who love it to the hilt and those who hate it to wrath. For past eleven years, the demarcation has only become stronger.

While I am about to get into another dooming spell of nine months on television until the next season of Bigg Boss arrives with fanfare, the intellectuals take a sigh of relief from the uselessly created hullabaloo.

Those who still blame us for our tasteless choice of reality TV show, can't help but wind it up by saying, "Do whatever you wanna do, man. Just don't trouble us."

(The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.)

The son of a judge who died in December 2014 while hearing a case in which Amit Shah, the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was an accused, said his father's death did not occur under suspicious circumstances. At a press conference on Sunday, Anuj Loya, the young son of late Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) judge Brijmohan Loya, said he had no "doubts about the way he (Loya) died" and requested media to leave his family alone.

Shah, who was accused of ordering the extrajudicial killings of gangster Sohrabuddin Sheikh, his wife and his friend, was acquitted of all three murders on 30 December, 2014, due to lack of evidence.

"I had an emotional turmoil, hence I had suspicions about his death. But now we don't have any doubts about the way he died," Anuj Loya told reporters. Loya, 48, died of a cardiac arrest while attending a wedding in Nagpur on 1 December, 2014, days before Shah was given a clean chit.

"Earlier my grandfather and aunt had some doubts about his death, which they shared. But now neither of them have any doubts," PTI quoted Anuj as saying. "We faced some pressure from politicians and NGOs. We don't want to name anyone, but please excuse my family from continuously asking about my father's death," the 21-year-old law student said.

He was accompanied byadvocate Ameet Naik, cousin Pratik Bhandari, and family friend and former Mumbai district judge KB Katke.

"We approached advocate Ameet Naik as we wanted to brief the media," Anuj said, adding that the Loyas have accepted "that the (judge's) death was due to heart attack", reported Times of India.

However, Shrinivas Loya, the 81-year-old paternal uncle of judge Loya, told The Caravan magazine that Anuj was "too young" and likely "under pressure", pressing that an inquiry be conducted into the death of the judge.

"If you ask me as a citizen, not as a relative. My view as a citizen is the inquiry initiated in the Supreme Court has to proceed. This is my personal view as a citizen," he told the magazine.

At an unprecedented press conference in the national capital, four sitting judges of the Supreme Court broke rank with the sitting Chief Justice of India, and raised concerns about the "administration" of the apex court. They criticized the way judicial appointments were handled and expressed reservations about distribution of important cases. Justice Jasti Chelameswar, one of the four judges who addressed the press, warned that the nation's democracy was under threat.

Following the public outburst by Justice Chelameswar, Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Kurian Joseph and Justice Madan Lokur, four former senior judges on Sunday released a letter in support

"We agree with the four judges that though the chief justice of India is the master of roster and can designate benches for allocation of work, this does not mean that it can be done in an arbitrary manner such that sensitive and important cases are sent to hand-picked benches of junior judges by the chief justice," the former judges said in the open letter.

Prime Minister Modi held an emergency meeting with his law minister following the press conference but the government has refused to comment, reported Reuters.

A teenager from Haryana's Kurukshetra district was allegedly raped, brutalized and murdered, with foreign objects inserted into her private parts, The Times of India reported today. Her semi-naked body was recovered from a water channel in Jind district on Saturday evening.

The deceased, the daughter of a tailor, went missing from her village in Kurukshetra on 9 January.

S.K. Dattarwal, head of the forensics department in the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (PGIMS), Rohtak, where the autopsy was conducted, told TOI, "In all, her body had 19 injuries — largely on face, head, chest and hands. Her lungs were ruptured, suggesting someone might have sat on her chest."

"At the same time, water was found from her body. Her body parts were badly damaged, suggesting both unnatural act and gang rape. There were internal injuries as well, suggesting the assailants had inserted a foreign object," he said, adding that "the girl was subjected to immense brutality."

The Hindustan Times reported that a Class 12 student is the prime suspect in the horrific crime.

"The police have detained some people suspecting their involvement but the main accused is still at large. We are conducting raids to arrest him," Superintendent of Police in Kurukshetra, Abhishek Garg, told HT.

Dattarwal told HT, "The autopsy suggests this was an act of frustration. All the damage to her private parts seems to have been done after she was drowned and murdered. This was the work of more than one person who failed to sexually assault the victim while she was alive."

The father of the deceased told reporters, "My daughter was killed brutally, I want justice for her. I cannot fight a long battle for justice but I appeal to the police to send her criminals behind the bars."

The father has also accused the local police of failing to act in time. "Why did the police take three days to find our daughter?" he said.

In another horrific case of sexual violence in Haryana, the body of a Dalit girl was recovered in Urlana village of Panipat district on Sunday morning. The 11-year-old was allegedly murdered and then gang-raped by her two neighbors - both in their twenties.

On Friday evening in Uttar Pradesh, the mutilated body of a teenager from Ghaziabad was recovered from a sugarcane field the neighboring district of Meerut.

The daughter of a temple priest was allegedly kidnapped, gang-raped, tortured and murdered.

Four Pakistani soldiers were killed on Monday in shelling by Indian forces in the disputed Kashmir region, the Pakistani army said, the latest clash between the nuclear-armed neighbours who have also been exchanging heated challenges.

A decades-old dispute over Kashmir, claimed in full but ruled in part by both Pakistan and India, has heated up in recent years after a 2003 ceasefire brought more than a decade of relative peace.

"Troops were busy in line communication maintenance when they were fired upon and hit by heavy mortar round," the Pakistani military said of the attack in which the four men were killed, in the Jandrot region.

Pakistani forces responded, killing three Indian soldiers and wounding several, it said.

India's military told Reuters that Pakistani forces fired first and no casualties were recorded on the Indian side.

On another section of the so-called Line of Control (LoC) dividing Kashmir between the two sides, India said its forces on Monday killed five member of a pro-Pakistan militant group trying to slip into Indian Kashmir.

"They crossed the Jhelum river which is de facto border in the area. We allowed them to cross the river and challenged them. All of the five who crossed the river were killed," said an Indian officer, Major General Gulab Singh Rawat.

A Pakistani military source, who declined to be identified, denied that any militants had been killed trying to cross from the Pakistani side to the Indian side.

India accuses Pakistan of backing Islamist militants and encouraging them to launch attacks in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where a separatist insurgency has simmered for years, and in other parts of India.

Pakistan denies that and says India must hold negotiations on the future of Kashmir.

The neighbours have fought three wars since their independence from Britain, two of them over Kashmir.

CALLING NUCLEAR BLUFF

Artillery exchanges across the LoC were common for years before the 2003 ceasefire in Kashmir largely brought an end to violence but clashes have again been increasing over the past couple of years.

Relations have been particularly tense since India said it had carried out cross-border surgical strikes against militants hiding in Pakistan in 2016.

Pakistan said Indian forces never crossed onto its territory.

On Friday, Indian army chief General Bipin Rawat said his forces were willing to carry out operations inside Pakistan despite the risk of a nuclear conflict, the Indian daily the Hindustan Times reported.

"If we will have to really confront the Pakistanis, and a task is given to us, we are not going to say we cannot cross the border because they have nuclear weapons. We will have to call their nuclear bluff," Rawat said at a press briefing.

The comment drew derision from Pakistan's foreign minister who termed the statement "irresponsible" and an "invitation for nuclear encounter".

"If that is what they desire, they are welcome to test our resolve. The general's doubt would swiftly be removed," Khwaja Asif said on Twitter.

Pakistan's military has said 52 civilians were killed and 254 wounded by Indian shelling in the region last year, more than in all of the previous 14 years combined.

The two sides accuse each other of repeated violations of the 2003 ceasefire.

The American filmmaker, Steven Soderbergh, famously said, "You're supposed to expand your mind to fit the art, not chop the art down to fit your mind."

Not in India.

Despite fighting a long and arduous battle with our country's regressive Censor Board, filmmaker Alankrita Shrivastava's award-winning Lipstick Under My Burkha faced another tough yet deeply ironical battle -- the moral high-handedness of those sitting at the helm of a prestigious museum.

In October 2017, the Prince of Wales Museum or Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (Fort, Mumbai) as it is now called, decided to get screenwriter Anuraadha Tewari to help them curate a 3-day film festival, with the theme being an extension of their ongoing exhibition, 'India and the World: In 9 Stories.'

Tewari, an industry veteran, chose 7 films to be screened at the festival over a period of 3 days -- Newton, A Death in the Gunj, Mukti Bhavan, Lagaan, Ajji, Bareily ki Barfi, and Lipstick Under My Burkha, films she felt represented the changing times in India. This line-up was conveyed to the festival in the last week of October, with the final list sent to them on December 12.

Tewari sought official permissions from the respective production houses and arranged for the technical conversion required to screen the film at the museum's indoor auditorium.

However, less than a fortnight before the festival was to kickstart, Tewari was told by the museum team, particularly festival consultant Pallavi Sharma that they cannot allow Lipstick Under My Burkha to be screened, without giving a clear indication as to what the issue was.

In messages seen by this writer, Tewari was pressurized into dropping the film as the museum felt 'uncomfortable' with the choice as it featured some 'sexually explicit scenes.'

The message read, "Everyone in the museum feels strongly against it."

When HuffPost got in touch with Mr. Sabyascahi Mukherjee, the museum director, he said all of this happened due to 'miscommunication.' He also said that the main reason for not allowing the film to be screened was its 'Adult' certification.

"What if children entered the screening room? After all, ours is an open venue. There was an anxiety from the education department of the museum about the film and hence we made a request to get it removed."

Mukherjee's explanation isn't consistent with the rest of the films exhibited at the festival. Devashish Makhija's Ajji, is also an 'Adult' film and features multiple scenes of graphic violence, but was part of the festival's line-up and was screened without any kids getting in the way.

A source, who didn't wish to go on-record, also mentioned that the museum feared a backlash from right-wing outfits such as the Shiv Sena and the exclusion of Lipstick Under My Burkha was a preemptive measure to avoid such a situation.

Mukherjee denied the claim, calling it 'rubbish' and saying if a different, 'Adults only' venue was free, they'd have screened the film there.

In a conversation with HuffPost, Tewari said the issue of children flocking the screening room was never brought up with her. She called it a 'lame' excuse. She also mentioned that given the small size of the venue (it could take about 50 people), it would hardly be a challenge to ensure no underage patron slipped in.

Tewari stated that the arbitrary nature of censorship, especially from a museum, which is supposed to embrace all forms of art, came from an 'imagined fragility of the audience and a culture of fear.'

She said, "To say that the museum was incapable of managing a festival of this scale and pulling it off would be an understatement. But that's the least of the problems. To have them generally hostile and uncooperative in many ways would still be dealt with. But to force me to delete a film from my list as a curator after having invited the makers and gotten permission, with lame excuses, and to then mess it up with the wrong listing (after the film's exclusion, the museum sent a press release mentioning the film in its line-up) and not even apologizing, is shameful, discourteous and a demeanor completely unsuitable to a curator of the arts. I am saddened, appalled and cannot fathom this lack of decency."

"Not to mention an imposition of personal choice despite being a curator of the arts," she said.

Museums banning pieces of art is practically unheard of. On the contrary, museums have defended their right to display provocative works of art.

In December last year, a bunch of New Yorkers launched a petition to get a painting, Thérèse Dreaming, by the French artist Balthus, removed from the prestigious MET museum as it depicted a sexualized version of a young girl. The petitioners protested that the painting romanticized voyeurism and given the current climate around sexual assault, it wasn't an appropriate fit in the museum.

However, the museum fiercely defended its decision to exhibit the painting. A rep of the museum said, "Our mission is to collect, study, conserve, and present significant works of art across all times and cultures in order to connect people to creativity, knowledge, and ideas."

"Moments such as this provide an opportunity for conversation, and visual art is one of the most significant means we have for reflecting on both the past and the present," spokesman Kenneth Weine was quoted as saying in the New York Post.

Some food for thought for the museum curators at Prince of Wales.

As for the film festival there, itwas inaugurated by director Anurag Kashyap.

Filmmakers Konkona Sen Sharma and Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari interacted with the audience post the screenings of their respective films while actor Pankaj Tripathi and Raghubir Yadav spoke passionately about the journey of Newton.

Lipstick Under My Burkha is available for viewing on Amazon Prime Video.

NEW DELHI - India and Israel will begin work on a free trade pact that Israel has been pushing for, officials said on Monday, as Benjamin Netanyahu began a first visit by an Israeli prime minister in 15 years.

India and Israel have built close ties over the years, largely centered on arms purchases, away from the public eye. But under Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose nationalist party has long admired Israel for its tough approach to terrorism, ties have flowered across the economy.

"We have had diplomatic relations for 25 years, but something different is happening now," Netanyahu said soon after the two sides signed nine agreements covering cooperation in cyber security, space and oil and gas exploration.

Israel has given initial approval for Indian energy companies to explore oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean, in the first such move by Indian firms in that region.

Netanyahu, who said he saw a "kindred spirit" in Modi in terms of getting things done, pushed for a free trade pact with Asia's third largest economy during the talks on Monday.

Modi agreed to open trade discussions, Indian foreign ministry secretary in charge of economic relations Vijay Gokhale told reporters. "A delegation from the commerce ministry will actually go next month for discussions on trade," he said.

Bilateral trade has jumped from $200 million in 1992, when the two countries opened diplomatic relations, to $4.16 billion in 2016, largely in favour of Israel.

Netanyahu, accompanied by a 130-member delegation, wants to increase exports to India by 25 percent over the three years.

Israel has emerged as one of India's biggest suppliers of weapons alongside the United States and long-term partner Russia.

But the two sides were tightlipped over the fate of a $500 million deal to buy anti-tank missiles from Israel's state-owned defence contractor Rafael that India called off just weeks before Netanyahu's first.

The Indian government wanted to support a local programme to build the missile but Israel has since pushed hard to revive the order. It has offered to transfer technology and eventually build the missile with a local partner in a boost for Modi's signature Make-in-India drive for a domestic defence base.

Without referring to the anti-tank missile deal, Modi said he had invited Israeli companies to take advantage of India's liberalised rules in the defence sector to "make more in India with our companies."

Last year, Modi made a first trip to Israel by an Indian prime minister ever.

The government will build facial recognition into its national identity card in addition to fingerprints after a series of breaches in the world's biggest biometric identification programme.

A local newspaper reported this month that access to the "Aadhaar" database which has identity details of more than 1 billion citizens was being sold for just $8 on social media.

The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), which issues the identity cards, said it would add face recognition software as an additional layer of security from July.

Card holders will be required to match their photographs with that stored in the data base for authentication in addition to fingerprints and iris scans, the agency said in a statement.

Many card users have complained in the past that fingerprint authentication has not worked because of changes in the case of the elderly and labourers since the time the original prints were taken.

India has reported an outbreak of a highly contagious bird flu virus near Bengaluru in Karnataka, the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) said on Monday, citing a report from the Indian agriculture ministry.

The H5N8 virus was detected on Dec. 26 among birds in the village of Dasarahalli, killing 9 out of 951 birds. The others were culled, the Paris-based OIE said in a report posted on its website.

No details were given on the type of birds involved.

Living in flood-prone areas of Assam with no alternate sustenance options, women of Mising tribal community have upgraded their traditional handloom weaving skills, and have adapted to market needs for a lucrative livelihood.

By Abdul Hamid*, Lakhimpur, Assam

Mising is one of the indigenous tribal communities of Assam with a rich tradition of weaving. A Mising woman, despite being engaged in myriad household activities through the day, would spend some time on her loom everyday. The women make garments, mainly for everyday use, through handloom weaving. They also weave classy products for special occasions. Mising women would weave in advance, five to 10 sets of mekhela chador — a traditional women's attire — to gift their daughters at the time of marriage.

In Assam, women feel proud to wear handloom products, especially mekhela chador, during special occasions like weddings and festivals like Bihu and Saraswati puja. Hence, the products are in great demand among people residing in Assam as well as outside the state. However, handloom weaving has not taken off as a thriving source of livelihood for various reasons. Using simple technology and adapting to market needs, the Mising women have now found the prospects of handloom weaving looking bright.

Weaving a viable livelihood

Mising villages are on the banks of the Brahmaputra River and its mighty tributaries. Every year the area faces devastating floods. The recurrent floods reduce the scope of alternate livelihood. Villages like Sisitangoni of Dhemaji district and Matmora of Lakhimpur district are affected by riverbank erosion or sand deposition, reducing any possibility of agrarian or land-based livelihoods. See:Riverbank erosion no less a disaster than Assam floods

The traditional throw shuttle loom is built under the stilt house, such houses being a traditional practice among the Misings to adapt to the floods. Using a tedious process that needs patience, the weavers produce wraps like mekhela chador and gero, stole like gamosa, besides some utilitarian items. Traditionally, weaving in Mising community was for their own use. But these days Mising handloom products are much in demand.

The demand of Mising handloom was beyond expectation in the handloom fair in 2014 when the total sale was for Rs 14 million over a period of five days. But due to low efficiency (weavers produce just two mekhela chador in a month) of traditional looms and limited product diversity, the weavers' remuneration is low. As a result, handloom weaving is not seen as a viable livelihood.

Dovetailing technology into tradition

However, dovetailing modern technology with the traditional skill of the weavers, handloom can provide a lucrative livelihood opportunity for the families of the area. With the objective of bridging the demand and supply gap, and making handloom weaving a sustainable livelihood, Mising Autonomous Council (MAC) and the Center for Microfinance and Livelihood (CML) with the Tata Trusts planned an intervention to be executed over three years.

The team decided to introduce technology to overcome the low production efficiency. As a first step, a warping drum was introduced for getting a defect-free warp. Unlike the traditional method, warping drum helped reduce the area required to make a warp.

Replacing the throw shuttle loom with advanced fly shuttle loom brought down the cost of production. A complete set of fly shuttle loom costs about Rs 30,000. But the cost was reduced to Rs 5,000 through a local innovation of replacing the steel frame of the loom with bamboo frame. Bamboo is not only locally available, it is also cheaper, durable and easily repairable.

In batches of 25, the weavers underwent a 60-day skill training, overcoming resistance from the men at home, giving up their contribution to the livelihood and running of the family. During the training, they learnt to take the warp in a warping drum, practice in the fly shuttle loom, develop designs, diversify products and also maintain records. In 18 months, 375 members have completed their training.

On completion of training, each weaver received a fly shuttle loom. With the prospects appearing good, the weavers provided bamboo and labor for construction of a 100 sq. ft weaving shed in their homes where floods would not damage them. "Earlier I couldn't take warp during rains as it required a large open ground but today with the warping drum I can take warp in a single room," Runa Doley of Matmora village told VillageSquare.in.

The training and practice in the new loom has increased the production efficiency up to a maximum of 250%. "Now I produce four mekhela chador in a month, when earlier I could make only one or two," Anima Taye of Sisitangoni village told VillageSquare.in.

The introduction of technology has not only improved production speed but also reduced the drudgery for the weavers. "Earlier I had to bend after every weft to throw the shuttle and I couldn't sleep at night because of the back pain. But now I weave at triple the usual speed without bending and without pain," Purnima Kaman told VillageSquare.in.

Weaving for the market

The women took a while to consider that handloom weaving could be taken up commercially and to deliver orders on time. Exposure through handloom exhibitions and community-led commercial enterprises has instilled in the weavers the need to complete orders on time and to move beyond the traditional use of yarn, color combination and design to suit market requirement. "Till two months back I wove only what my mother taught. Now I know warp measurement for different products and can weave any design developed in a graph paper," said Doley.

Besides the traditional wraps, now the women weave shawl, stole, table cloth, curtain, fabric for shirt, kurta etc. in diverse design and combination of colors. As a result, the range of buyers for their product has increased in comparison to earlier days, with the sale almost doubling in a month. "It was painful to weave a mekhela chador for a month and get just Rs 1,200 in return. Now I will earn more," Doley told VillageSquare.in.

The women came together as informal producer groups (PG). With the PG periodically purchasing yarn, the women avail of their working capital in the form of yarn at a minimal rate of interest. The weavers are free to sell the products on their own or through a company promoted by CML.

Out of the women who got trained, 200 weavers have already constructed their shed and started production in their new loom, with the working capital provided for about 3kg of yarn. The weavers have formed three PGs with 150 members in each. The PGs undertake collective direct selling to a few customers.

Timely marketing of the products and regular cash flow to the weavers is now a challenge. So the marketing channel will have to be strengthened and more organized. The nascent initiative shows that handloom weaving could change the lives of the Mising population in the flood-prone riverine area for better. There is a need for the state also to step in and to scale up the initiative.

Abdul Hamid works for Centre for Microfinance and Livelihood as Senior Program Manager. He worked with Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) for many years after graduating from Assam Agricultural University. Views are personal.

This article was first published on VillageSquare.in, a public-interest communications platform focused on rural India.

(The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.)

Ravaged by Cyclone Phailin, people of a fishing village buried their differences and emerged with a strong sense of unity to rebuild their lives at a relocation site

By Samapti Bal*, Ganjam, Odisha

Kariamma was devastated. Her house was one of the worst affected after Cyclone Phailin struck the eastern coast of India in October 2013. Her fishing village of Golabandha bore the brunt of the cyclone. The houses built of mud and having thatched roofs were no match for the fury of the cyclone.

Golabandha in Rangeilunda block of Ganjam district in Odisha was an idyllic village, with rows of small houses close to the beach and the waves lapping against the boats on the water's edge. Fishing is the livelihood of about 95% of the 1,008 families in Golabandha. Majority of the population belongs to other backward class (OBC) and scheduled caste (SC). While living on the coast was ideal for the villagers' livelihood, it also made them vulnerable to nature's elements.

Disaster gateway

Odisha has come to be known as the disaster gateway of India as it is one of the most vulnerable states in the country with a very high probability of cyclonic hits. The state has been experiencing disasters on a regular basis. In the last 105 years, Odisha has suffered concurrent floods for 50 years, droughts for 32 years; it has been struck by cyclones 11 times. Each disaster affected people's lives, their livelihood and income significantly, thus upsetting the socio-economic structure.

Earlier the Odisha government had to tried to relocate them since the village was in the vicinity of the Army Air Defence College. But the villagers resisted, fearing that their livelihood would be lost if they were to move away from the sea. In the aftermath of Cyclone Phailin, despite the limited loss of life, the impact on the coastal residents of Ganjam, Puri and Khordha districts was massive. In Ganjam district, about 90,000 houses were partially or fully damaged along the coastal areas.

In Golabandha, nearly 700 houses were severely damaged. The villagers lost 305 boats, more than 2,500 livestock, besides many valuable assets. The Government of Odisha, with financial support from the World Bank, allocated houses to communities affected by Phailin, under Odisha Disaster Recovery Project (ODRP), to reduce their vulnerability. To the villagers of Golabandha, the government allocated land at New Kirtipur.

New location

The government chose New Kirtipur, following the guidelines regarding the distance of the village from the sea. Odisha State Disaster Management Authority (OSDMA) is the implementing agency for the post-disaster rehabilitation, with Gram Vikas, a grassroots non-profit, as the socio-technical support agency. The government offered Rs 3 lakh to each beneficiary for construction of a house, besides providing with other facilities like electricity, water supply, drainage, road, community center and daycare center.

Despite the promised facilities, the villagers were reluctant to move and start construction work, as New Kirtipur was a low-lying land. Leveling would involve additional expenditure. Groundwater was saline. The villagers said that they would not be able to use the saline water for construction purposes. Blind social beliefs and caste divisions further hindered the relocation.

At this juncture, Gram Vikas intervened and conducted several community meetings and interacted with all the beneficiaries at a personal level. The efforts of the panchayat members and village chief also bore results. Bonding between villagers became stronger and finally they stood united in relocating to New Kirtipur. They reached a consensus on segregating groups of houses on the basis of caste. "We were having so many differences among ourselves earlier. Now we stand united," J. Rajamma told VillageSquare.in.

For leveling the land, the villagers sought the help of the block administration and they agreed. The villagers pitched in labor wherever they could, to fill up and level the low-lying land. Rural Water Supply and Sanitation (RWSS) dug tube wells to provide potable water for the villagers. Though one tube well was dug for every 50 houses, it was not sufficient for the 1000-odd population. To solve this problem, the community dug bore wells and installed about 250 hand pumps with their own resources.

Massive reconstruction

The massive construction work involved in the relocation project required skilled labor and trained masons. The supporting agencies trained interested villagers as masons. The beneficiaries have started constructing their houses through owner-driven construction of houses (ODCH) method, instead of seeking the services of contractors. "The training helped us build our own houses and so we saved money," resident N. Ramayya told VillageSquare.in. Building the houses on their own has helped each household save about Rs 30,000.

At the New Kirtipur relocation site, 80% of the construction has been completed. "Initially we protested, but now we are happy because it's a dream place for us," Kariamma told VillageSquare.in. The fishermen can continue with their work, as the village is less than 1 km from the sea. The government and Gram Vikas are training other villagers in alternate livelihoods.

Alternate livelihoods

Some families, essentially the non-fisher folk, plan to start petty businesses and micro enterprises. The villagers also plan to develop plantation around the habitation & kitchen gardens at their backyards. "We have formed a Village Water Sanitation Committee (VWSC) for maintenance and sustainability of water and sanitation facilities," A. Narayan, the committee's president, told VillageSquare.in.

Another major positive change is that the community has bonded well and has resolved disputes amicably. They share resources and help each other in work. "Now we can have our new lives in safe homes," J. Appeya Naidu, head of the village, told VillageSquare.in.

Samapti Bal is a postgraduate in sociology from Ravenshaw University and works for Gram Vikas. She has been associated with the Odisha Disaster Recovery Project since its inception in 2014.

This article was first published on VillageSquare.in, a public-interest communications platform focused on rural India.

(The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.)

Nepal's traditional bio-pesticide and fertilizer Jhol Mol is suited for many smallholder Indian farmers as well, as it can be easily made in a farm without resorting to artificial chemicals that are harmful for soil health

By Nivedita Khandekar*

For centuries, Indian farmers have mixed livestock dung and biomass compost for use as manure. It's the same with Nepal's farmers. Both countries have a large proportion of small farmers, for whom chemical fertilizers and pesticides is not always desirable in the long run, both in terms of cost and maintaining soil health and nutrient balance. Nepal has turned to Jhol Mol, a traditional bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticide, which can be beneficial to Indian farmers too.

On the one hand, soil productivity decreases over the time due to persistent use of chemical fertilizers. On the other, it leads to environmental and health impacts too. To make things worse, farmers are increasingly facing the vagaries of nature vis-à-vis the changing climate, including erratic rainfall and increasing temperatures. The condition of Nepalese farmers is no different from their Indian counterparts. But many of them have found a savior in Jhol Mol.

"This already was a traditional practice. What we did was basically a blending of the scientific approach and local traditional knowledge and systems," Keshab Dutt Joshi of the Centre for Environmental and Agriculture Policy Research, Extension and Development (CEAPRED) said in Kathmandu last month.

Jhol Mol is a variety of organic fertilizer, which is a combination of Jeevatu, Nepal's indigenous effective microorganism mixed and fermented with water, cow or buffalo urine, cow dung and biomass such as leaves available on the farm land. Although it has a pungent odor and taste, "it is helpful in controlling insect pests that attack and damage crops, protects crops against fungal and vector-borne disease and improves plant health," its promoters say. Farmers from the Dhulikhel area in Nepal corroborated this. The farmers used plastic tanks or even plastic lined covered pits to prepare and store this solution.

This microbe solution has done wonders for smallholders in Nepal. "After successful experiments in three pilot projects, now the idea is being replicated by farmers themselves in 16 of Nepal's districts," Joshi told VillageSquare.in. The Nepal government has come forward to spread this to other districts from 2017.

Climate-smart villages

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development is helping CEAPRED, an NGO, to turn mountain villages into climate-smart villages. In fact, the success of this venture prompted Nand Kishor Agrawal, program coordinator for ICIMOD's Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP), to include this as a positive case study in a compendium called Building Mountain Resilience: Solutions from the Hindu Kush Himalaya brought out in December at the International Conference on Resilient Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) held at Kathmandu.

After meeting Joshi and his colleague Roshan Subedi at the open stalls showcasing various resilience practices across the HKH — several of them featured in the compendium and such that can be applied for Indian Himalayas and its foothills too — I asked Agrawal, originally a rural development management professional, if this can help Indian farmers. The immediate response was: "More than Nepal farmers."

Feasible for India

"This — the Jhol Mol solution — is in fact more feasible for Indian conditions. The important thing is that this needs fermentation. It will work for both Indian Himalayan villages and for plains too. With more temperature in Indian villages on plains compared with Nepal hills, this will function even better," Agrawal told VillageSquare.in.

And just as this is more effective for small farmers in Nepal, this beneficial microbe solution can be effective for Indian small farmers. Government data shows that India has about 67% farmers categorized as marginal (those with less than 1 hectare of land); about 18% as smallholding farmers (1-2 ha) and just about 10% that fall in semi-medium (2-4ha) land holding.

In Maharashtra, the state government filed an FIR against five companies when at least 18 people died between July and October 2017 in Yavatmal district, allegedly owing to a toxic pesticide they were exposed to.

Big market

Statistics from Government of India's Department of Fertilizers shows that there are 160 fertilizer companies across India, including public sector, cooperative and private, and the total sale of fertilizers in 2016-17 was 54.2 million tons. The government said in a reply to a question in Lok Sabha on January 2 this year that the all-India consumption of urea for the year 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 was around 30 million tons every year. Further, stating that the import of urea is based on demand-supply gap dynamics, the government said it has allocated Rs 14,000 crore for Imported Urea in the Budgetary Estimates (BE) 2017-18.

The Crop and Weather Watch Group under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmer Welfare's Crop Forecast Coordination Centre holds regular meetings — such as this latest meeting on January 5, 2018 — where the Central Integrated Pest Management Centres (CIPMCs) report about pests and diseases.

But, as is evident from Maharashtra's example, chemical fertilizers have not helped, and especially so for the smallholding farmers. It should indeed be evaluated if the usage of chemical fertilizers, including urea, is really worth in view of both the cost and risk involved. Remember, the government's fertilizer subsidy stood for 2017-18 stands at Rs 70,000 crore, according to the annual budget. Chemical fertilizer cannot be a long-term solution even for the soil health. More and more farmers should be doing better without the chemical fertilizers and turn to entirely organic farming.

Affordable replication

The ICIMOD conference adopted a 12-point action agenda for building resilience across the Hindu Kush Himalayas. Aligned with the sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it talks of prioritizing what is essential for mountains in view of the changing climate, which includes "mass promotion of resilience-building technologies and solutions that are proven to be simple, affordable, and replicable apart from promoting and strengthening regional cooperation at all levels across the HKH region." And in cases such as Jhol Mol, this "replication" of a simple, affordable solution can be done across India, not just Himalayas.

Organic farming has taken a positive turn in India with more and more demand from the conscious citizens. Ardent promoters of organic farming have always maintained that it can meet demands for the growing food needs of Indians and also be environmentally friendly. Jhol Mol proves it can be not just cost-effective but good for farmers' health and that of the soil as well.

Nivedita Khandekar is an independent journalist based in Delhi.

This article was first published on VillageSquare.in, a public-interest communications platform focused on rural India.

(The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.)

As the year draws to a close, the wedding season has descended upon us with a vengeance, cramming our social diary. At most of the weddings, after going through the social niceties, I am usually approached by someone looking to discuss their frayed marriage. The irony of approaching a divorce lawyer at a wedding speaks volumes about the state of marriages in 'new India'. Similarly even the judgements that are changing the landscape of matrimonial matters reflect a modern and progressive mindset that is in keeping with the times that we live in.

TRIPLE TALAQ BAN

For almost a decade there have been murmurs about the discrimination against Muslim women in triple talaq. Triple talaq which gives an unequivocal and unilateral right to a Muslim man, to divorce his wife simply by pronouncing 'Talq! Talaq!Talaq!' and not providing the women with the same right and hardly any legal recourse to challenge it seemed archaic to say the least and has no place in law during today's day and age. The Supreme Court banned triple talaq on 22 August 2017 by a 3:2 majority and in fact even called the practice 'un-islamic'.

The judges stated "given the fact that Triple Talaq is instant and irrevocable, it is obvious that any attempt at reconciliation between the husband and wife by two arbiters from their families, which is essential to save the marital tie, cannot ever take place. This being the case, it is clear that this form of Talaq is manifestly arbitrary in the sense that the marital tie can be broken capriciously and whimsically by a Muslim man without any attempt at reconciliation so as to save it.In our opinion, therefore, the 1937 Act, insofar as it seeks to recognize and enforce Triple Talaq, is within the meaning of the expression 'laws in force' in Article 13(1) and must be struck down as being void to the extent that it recognizes and enforces Triple Talaq."

Justices Kurian Joseph, UU Lalit and RF Nariman delivered the majority Judgment. Chief Justice Khehar and Justice Abdul Nazeer dissented.

The banning of triple talaq not only re-calibrates the power in a marriage between men and women, who earlier had no standing and lived under the fear of Triple Talaq, but also paves the way for a Uniform Civil Code.

TEMPLE ENTRY BY PARSI WOMEN

On 14 December, 2017, the efforts of Goolrukh Gupta and her lawyer sister Shiraz Patodia led to a landmark judgment by the Supreme Court 'to break tradition and allow Parsi women married to non-Parsis to enter The Tower of Silence. A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra remarked to the Trust's counsel "You must tell the trustees... rigidity is not always a correct principle of understanding a concept of religion. Less rigidity attracts more...," The Constitution Bench, also comprising Justices A K Sikri, A M Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud and Ashok Bhushan, also said "there is no law which says that a woman loses religious identity after marrying a man from another faith."

Prior to this judgement Parsi women who married non-Parsis were not allowed to enter the Tower of Silence. In a way they were ex-communicated from the Parsi community, although the same didn't apply in totality to men who married non-Parsis. This judgement reflects the break from centuries old traditions which perhaps have no place in today's world especially one in which marriages know no boundaries and are not impacted by caste, religion and even nationalities.

WAIVER OF SIX-MONTHS COOLING PERIOD

SC granted a waiver of the 6 months cooling off period to a couple while applying for a divorce by mutual consent. This, in itself, is a jump light years ahead in comparison to the time taken by judiciary. The Hindu Marriage Act, 1956, has a provision for divorce by mutual consent, which is relatively easier and less contentious than a contested divorce.

Section 13B of the Hindu Marriage Act:

Divorce by mutual consent.-(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act a petition for dissolution of marriage by a decree of divorce may be presented to the District Court by both the parties to a marriage together, whether such marriage was solemnized before or after the commencement of the Marriage Laws (Amendment) Act, 1976, on the ground that they have been living separately for a period of one year or more, that they have not been able to live together and that they have mutually agreed that the marriage should be dissolved. (2) On the motion of both the parties made earlier than six months after the date of the presentation of the petition referred to in sub-section (1) and not later than eighteen months after the said date, if the petition is not withdrawn in the mean time, the Court shall, on being satisfied, after hearing the parties and after making such inquiry as it thinks fit, that a marriage has been solemnized and that the averments in the petition are true, pass a decree of divorce declaring the marriage to be dissolved with effect from the date of the decree.

In layman's terms if you are filing a divorce by mutual consent you should be separated for a year and after presenting your petition in court, the divorce is granted after a period of 6 months. However, with the new judgement there is a sigh for relief for acrimonious couples. In a larger socio-legal context it can be held to be a reflector of the times to come where growing divorce rates is a reality we will have to embrace whether we like it or not.

The judgements reflect a tectonic shift in the way matrimonial matters are being viewed both by the judiciary and society at large. Whether these judgements are good or bad is not the moot question but rather that they are a manifestation of a society which is churning and breaking away from the shackles of unwanted traditions in marriages.

Hope you have a lovely 2018.

(The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.)

There is a girl in Toronto who needs a lot of patience and understanding.

This 11-year-old child made a mistake that grew and grew until it became an international story. She told her family, her school and the police that a stranger had followed her and attacked her with scissors, slashing her hijab. Twice. The child's brother reported that he had been witness to it all. The girl described her attacker and the event in some detail. The man was Asian, he was smiling, he was dressed in black, the scissors had a blue handle.

After the police went to the media with the story, a press conference was held in the child's school, and she was interviewed by numerous media outlets. Political leaders from three levels of government responded with shock and horror. Even CNN picked up the story. Many people said, "This is not Canada."

Then the police investigated further, only to find that the story was untrue. It had not happened.

Actually, something DID happen. A girl, for reasons we will never know, felt the need to create a story that quickly got away from her. Did she call a press conference? That seems unlikely. Did she ask the police to release the report to the media? Also rather unlikely.

As a human rights educator, a mother and grandmother, I have had quite a few 11-year-old girls in my life. They can be bossy, rude, mean, angry, independent, easily influenced, sweet, kind, vulnerable, confused, frightened and deeply in need of attention, all at the same time.

I believe we owe her an apology for not remembering that, even though she is well-spoken, she is still a child.

There is a reason that our society does not permit children of this age to vote or to sign contracts. They are not fully formed adults. They are on the way to being critical thinking individuals, but they have not yet arrived there. They can make independent choices, and also big mistakes. The Youth Criminal Justice Act treats people under the age of 18 differently from adults. Our laws recognize children as being less culpable than their seniors and expect those who are in trouble with the law to reform and mature as they age.

Rather than call for an apology (what good would that do?) from the girl and her family, I believe we owe her an apology for not remembering that, even though she is well-spoken, she is still a child. She even told us, although it was while describing her fear at the fictitious attack: "I am a kid." Exactly.

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When did we assign this level of attention to a child's stories? When race and religion are involved, we seem to lose all perspective. Because the story appeared to be one where hatred was a motivating factor, where a child was attacked for wearing a religious head covering, we felt a kind of national outrage. Did the child know that she was hitting Canada's sensitive button? We don't know.

We know that, several times a year, a child reports that a scary adult has followed them to school (on a day they may have arrived late), or that that someone tried to drag them into a car, or that a bad man tried to hurt them. While sometimes the stories are true, they are frequently followed by a much less publicized retraction. They often did not happen.

Don't be surprised when a scared child is interrogated and comes up with her own personal bogeyman.

I repeat that I know nothing about the child in Toronto or her reasons, but I do know something about the teaching of "stranger danger." What could be easier than instilling in children a fear of "the other?" Even though we know that children are most at risk of harm from their own family members and friends, we continue to scare them with the bogeyman.

So don't be surprised when a scared child is interrogated and comes up with her own personal bogeyman. As for the rest of us? Let's just get a grip!

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday he was discussing with India ways to strengthen security cooperation against the menace of Islamist extremism that both democracies faced.

Netanyahu spoke while on a six-day tour of India, the first by an Israeli premier for 15 years, and is being feted by Indian counterpart Narendra Modi, whose Hindu nationalist party has long admired Israel for its tough posture against terrorism.

India, wary of upsetting Arab nations on which it was dependent for oil, and heeding the sentiments of its own large Muslim minority, kept a distance from Israel for decades. But under Modi, the two sides have embraced a closer relationship based on security and economics.

The right-wing Netanyahu told a security conference that India and Israel were two democracies with a natural affinity, but their open and liberal societies faced risks.

"Our way of life is being challenged, most notably, the quest for modernity, the quest for innovation (are) being challenged by radical Islam and its terrorist offshoots from a variety of corners," he said.

Both Israel and India have long sought to counter militant Islamists - in Israel's case, mainly from Gaza and Egypt's Sinai region and, in India's case, mainly from Pakistan. Away from the public eye, India and Israel have been cooperating against the threat through, in part, intelligence sharing, officials say.

"We've discussed in this visit how we can strengthen our two nations in the civilian areas, in security areas, in every area," Netanyahu told the conference.

His trip to India comes just six months after Modi made the first trip by an Indian prime minister to Israel, during which he did not go to Ramallah, seat of the self-ruling Palestinian Authority and a customary stop for leaders visiting the region.

Netanyahu toured the Taj Mahal on Tuesday and will also visit Modi's home state of Gujarat and India's financial capital Mumbai.

He will join an 11-year-old Israeli boy, Moshe Holtzberg, whose parents were murdered by Pakistan-based militants in Mumbai in 2008, for a memorial event at Mumbai's Jewish centre where the attack took place.

The boy, who lives with his grandparents in Israel, arrived on Tuesday as a guest of Modi.

The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) in India have historically been situated at the bottom among all the social groups on various Human Development Indicators, be it health, education or poverty status. In terms of health, these two marginalized groups have the worst Child and Maternal Health Indicators e.g. Child Mortality Rates, Proportion of Underweight Children etc.

Two very crucial reports related to Human Development Indicators of India has been released recently, one the 'Final Country Report-Millennium Development Goals' (Final MDG Report) and the other the All India report for 'National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 (NFHS 4 All India Report). The Final MDG Report published by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in November 2017 contains final updated information about the achievements of India as on target years of MDGs (2015) in respect of the eight MDGs related to health, education, poverty reduction and gender justice etc. The NFHS 4 All India Report has been released in January 2018 which provides information on reproductive and child health, morbidity, mortality, fertility, family planning, nutrition etc.

The NFHS 4 All India Report provides information on various health indicators according to social categories while the Final MDG Report provided just an overall analysis of achievements of the total population on various MDGs, including health. With the release of NFHS 4 All India Report, inference related to Child and Maternal health of SC and ST population can be drawn emphasising on how these disadvantaged groups have performed on the targets set under MDGs relating to child health in the last one and a half decade after the adoption of MDG by India at the United Nations in the Year 2000.

The present article describes how the SCs and STs have performed on the MDG related to Child Mortality in the last one and a half decade as compared to the total population. The article also provides an account of the schemes/policies of the government which are in tune to achieve the MDG related to Child Health and the progress of SCs and STs on the same.

The Goal 4 of MDG was to 'Reduce Child Mortality' and India targeted to reduce its child-mortality by 2/3rd, between 1990-2015. To measure the reduction of child mortality, two major indicators were used by the MOSPI in its Final MDG Report, first Under 5 Mortality Rate (U5MR) and the second, Infant Mortality Rate (IMR). The data on U5MR and IMR related to various social groups are available through various NFHS reports. The data from NFHS 1 (1992-93) could be used as the base year and data from NFHS 4 (2015-16) can be used as the target year to understand where does the SC and ST population stands on the targets set under MDG 4.

The Under-Five Mortality Rate (U5MR) is the probability (expressed as a rate per 1,000 live births) of a child born in a specified year dying before reaching the age of five if subject to current age-specific mortality rates. The Final MDG Report states that 'India was very close to achieving the target of the U5MR set under MDG. According to Sample Registration System (SRS) as of the year 2015, the U5MR was 43 at all India level and MDG target for U5MR was 42'.

However, the data collected by the NFHS on U5MR for all India as well as for SCs and STs presents a different story. In 1992-93, the U5MR at all India was 118.8, for SCs it was 149.1 and for STs, it was 135.2 which according to the target set under MDG 4, should have been reduced by 2/3rd to become 40.4 (all India), 50.7 (SCs) and 56.0 (STs) respectively in the year 2015. But data from NFHS 4, shows that the U5MR, at all India level is 49.7, for SCs 55.8 and for STs 57.2 respectively. The reduction in U5MR was maximum for SC population (93.3 points) followed by ST (78 points) and total population (69.1 points) in the time period 1992-2015.

Achievements in reducing Under 5 Mortality Rate, 1992-93 to 2015-16

Source: NFHS 1, NFHS 4, MDG Final Country Report

The U5MR is still the highest for STs followed by SCs and total population. The STs have missed the target of reducing U5MR by 2/3rd under MDG 4 by a huge margin of 11.2 points, SCs missed the target by 5.1 points while at all India level the target is missed by 9.3 points.

Another worrying trend of U5MR, which NFHS data shows, is that there is still a significant gap between Rural and Urban U5MR. While this gap has decreased significantly since the 1990s, the Rural-Urban divide between U5MR is maximum for STs at 33.5 points and for all India and SC population, it is around 22 points as of the year 2015-16.

Rural-Urban Gap in Under 5 Mortality Rate, 1992-93 to 2015-16

Source: NFHS 1, NFHS 3, NFHS 4

The rural-urban difference in U5MR has reduced significantly for ST population in the last ten years from 41.9 points in 2005-06 to 33.5 points in 2015-16, but surprisingly in the same period, for SC and total population, there has been a negligible decline in the rural-urban difference in U5MR.

Another important indicator which the Final MDG Report used to monitor child mortality is Infant Mortality Rate (IMR). IMR is the number of death in children under one year of age per 1000 live births. The Country Report states that 'in India, 'IMR was estimated at 80 per 1,000 live births in 1990. As per SRS 2015, the IMR is at 37 vis-a-vis the target of 27 infant deaths per 1000 live births by 2015'.

Again for IMR as well, the NFHS presents a different situation. According to NFHS, in 1992-93, the IMR was 86.3 at all India level, 107.3 for SCs and 90.5 for STs which according to the target set under MDG 4 should have been reduced by 2/3rd to become 29.3 (all India), 36.5 (SCs) and 30.8 (STs) respectively in 2015. However, the data from NFHS 4 (2015-16), shows that IMR at all India level is 40.7, for SCs 45.2 and for STs 44.4. The reduction in IMR was highest for SC Population (62.1 Points), followed by ST (46.1 points) and total population (45.6 points) in the time period 1992-2015.

Achievements in reducing Infant Mortality Rate, 1992-93 to 2015-2016

Source: NFHS 1, NFHS 4, MDG Final Country Report

The IMR is highest for SCs followed by STs and total population. At all India level the target of reducing IMR by 2/3^rd in the period 1990-2015 has been missed by 11.4 points, the SCs missed the target by 8.7 points while the ST population have missed the target by 13.6 points.

Like U5MR, in the case of IMR also, there exists a huge gap between, rural-urban IMR. The gap is highest for STs (23.8 points) followed by SCs (18.5 points) and total population (17 points) as in the year 2015-16.

Rural-Urban Gap in Infant Mortality Rate, 1992-93 to 2015-16

Source: NFHS 1, NFHS 3, NFHS 4

The rural-urban difference in IMR at all India level as well as for SC population has very marginally reduced in the period 2005-06 to 2015-16. Also, in the same period, the rural-urban difference in IMR has increased for STs from 20.1 points in 2005-06 to 23.8 points in 2015-16.

The Final MDG Report also mentioned the schemes and policies of the government which are in tune to achieve the targets set under MDG relating to Child Health. One such major scheme is Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). The ICDS Scheme is one of the flagship programmes of the Government of India and is the foremost symbol of country's commitment to its children and nursing mothers, as a response to the challenge of providing pre-school non-formal education on one hand and breaking the vicious cycle of malnutrition, morbidity, mortality etc. The beneficiaries under the Scheme are children in the age group of 0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers. The ICDS Scheme offers a package of 6 services, viz, i. Supplementary Nutrition ii. Pre-school non-formal education iii. Nutrition & health education iv. Immunization v. Health check-up and vi. Referral services. ICDS scheme runs on shared funds between the centre and the state.

ICDS was expected to contribute to the attainment of the MDG 4 which includes the reduction in IMR and U5MR. The amount spent under the scheme by various states and the number of beneficiaries under the scheme had fallen in the last couple of years despite the fact that India is yet to achieve the target set under MDG to reduce malnutrition among children.

Expenditure under ICDS scheme at all India level, 2012-2017 (Rs. In Crores)

Source: Lok Sabha, Unstarred Question no. 2444, 25.07.2014 & 1316, 22.12.2017

The supplementary Nutrition Program under ICDS is the major component of ICDS providing supplementary nutrition to children of age 6 months to 6 years and Pregnant Women and Lactating mother. The total number of Supplementary nutrition beneficiaries under ICDS scheme was 1032.32 lakhs on 30.09.2013 which has reduced to 949.39 lakhs as on 19-12-2017.

Also, the share of Child Budget out of Total Union Budget has reduced significantly in the last five years. The Child Budget constituted 4.80% of the total Union Budget in the year 2012-13 (RE) which has declined to just 3.30% of the Total Union Budget in the year 2017-18 (BE).

The Share of Child Budget expressed as the percentage of GDP has reduced by almost half in the last five years. Child Budget accounted for 0.70% of the total GDP in the year 2012-13 (RE) which has reduced to just 0.40% in the year 2015-16 (BE).

Under MDG 4, the child mortality has reduced significantly at all India level as well as for SC and ST population but still, SC and ST population has the highest Child Mortality indicators. Even though there has been a tremendous reduction in the mortality incidences among SC children, still India failed to achieve the target set under MDG 4 to reduce child mortality (Under 5 Mortality as well as Infant Mortality) by 2/3rd between 1990-2015. The Child Mortality is still highest for the ST population and even the rural-urban difference in child mortality is highest among the ST population. In the last ten years, there has been a negligible reduction in the rural-urban divide in child mortality for all the social groups and shockingly, the rural-urban divide in IMR has increased for ST population since 2005-06.

After the termination of Millennium Development Goals in the year 2015, MDG 4 (Reducing Child Mortality) has now been transformed into the Sustainable Development Goals 2 and 3. The analysis presented here based on the insights from Final Country Report MDG and National Report of NFHS 4, clearly indicates that Child Mortality needs utmost attention from the government in terms of increased budgetary support as well as targeted policies/schemes.

The government should increase its focus towards rural health to bring parity between rural and urban areas in terms of child mortality. In the upcoming budget session, the budgetary allocation to schemes like ICDS and component for Child Budget must be increased in a comprehensive manner to tackle the current situation of Child Mortality with a special focus on ST and SC population.

(The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of HuffPost India. Any omissions or errors are the author's and HuffPost India does not assume any liability or responsibility for them.)