A Delhi court on Wednesday remanded six college students who were arrested after a protest against air pollution to police custody for three days.

Judicial Magistrate Arindam Singh Cheema of the Patiala House Court said that police custody was warranted in view of the seriousness of the allegations, the need to “unearth the larger conspiracy” and the need for effective investigation.

The students were accused of using criminal force against police personnel and shouting pro-Maoist slogans at the protest at India Gate on November 23.

Some of the protestors had allegedly used pepper spray on police personnel while being removed from the site, while some had allegedly displayed posters and shouted slogans hailing Maoist leader Madvi Hidma, who was recently killed in a gunfight with security forces.

Five of the demonstrators were sent to judicial custody for two days on November 24, while one was sent to an observation home under the Juvenile Justice Act while his age was being verified.

On Wednesday, the six persons were produced before the court again as their judicial custody period ended. During the hearing, the investigating officer produced documents showing that the sixth accused person was also an adult.

The prosecution argued that police custody was needed to interrogate the accused students about the alleged pro-Maoist slogans, examine their call records, identify other conspirators, look into funding sources, identify the source of the pepper spray and analyse mobile chats on planning and coordination.

The police said that Maoist violence is a serious threat and contended that the students’ actions could encourage such activities and demoralise security forces.

The additional public prosecutor, representing the state, said that a lenient view could not be taken of the students just because they are young and educated. He noted that those who are accused of having carried out the bomb blast near the Red Fort in Delhi on November 10 are also “young, educated and allegedly brainwashed”.

The police claimed that the students’ allegations of having been subjected to torture in custody were false and were meant to “overawe the police officials not to take legal action against such illegal activity”.

The lawyers for the students opposed police custody, saying that the students had no links to banned organisations, that no new evidence was produced in 48 hours to justify police custody and that the police were making exaggerated claims.

Some lawyers argued that their clients “did not even know Hindi” and that chanting slogans critical of the government is protected under the right to free speech.

The judge, however, said that the videos shown by the police showed the students pushing over barricades despite being told that India Gate was not a designated protest site, and that the videos showed slogans being shouted in support of Hidma.

“In view of the recent attacks in New Delhi, the right of the investigating agency cannot be curtailed at a recent stage when there are allegations regarding the raising of slogans which jeopardise the sovereignty, integrity and security of India,” the court said.

The protest on November 23 was mainly organised by a environmental research and action collective called Himkhand, student group Bhagat Singh Chatra Ekta Manch and discussion forum Scientists for Society.

Scientists for Society, however, said on November 24 that it joined the protest only on the subject of pollution, and that the agitation was “not the appropriate forum” to discuss Hidma’s killig.

Participants said the protest centred on air pollution for the first hour, but subsequently, some demonstrators crossed police barricades and shouted slogans about the killing of Hidma on November 18. The police then began detaining people.

By late evening, 23 individuals had been detained from India Gate, Kartavya Path, and later from outside the Parliament Street police station. One case was registered against six persons at the Kartavya Path police station, and another first information report was filed against 17 persons at the Parliament Street police station.

The cases were initially filed under sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to assault, obstruction of public servants and outraging the modesty of women. On Tuesday, the police also added charges pertaining to making assertions prejudicial to national integration to the FIR registered at the Kartavya Path police station.

The 17 persons named in the case filed at the Parliament Street police station were on November 24 sent to three days’ judicial custody.

The Srinagar Police said that it carried out inspections at mosques and madrasas on Thursday as part of a crackdown on “individuals and networks associated with terrorist organisations”.

The intensified checks come in the aftermath of the blast near Delhi’s Red Fort metro station on November 10, which left 13 persons dead.

The doctor believed to have been driving the car that exploded was identified as Umar Nabi, a resident of Kashmir.

Two days after the explosion, the Union government described it as a “terrorist incident”.

Hours before the blast, the police said that it had cracked an “inter-state and transnational terror module” in Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur.

The case, along with the recent detection of the alleged terror module, has prompted multiple rounds of checks in the Valley.

On November 12, the Jammu and Kashmir Police conducted raids at more than 300 locations in the Kashmir valley allegedly linked to persons affiliated with the banned Jamaat-e-Islami. The actions came after intelligence that elements linked to the Jamaat-e-Islami, banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, were trying to revive the organisation under different names, the police had said at the time.

On Thursday, the Srinagar Police said that search teams accompanied by executive magistrates and independent witnesses inspected several premises to collect evidence related to “terror-linked or radical activities inimical to the security and integrity of the nation”.

Officers examined digital devices, documents and other material during the searches.

👉𝙎𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙧 𝙋𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙚 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙩𝙨 𝘾𝙞𝙩𝙮𝙬𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙎𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙈𝙖𝙙𝙧𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙖𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙈𝙖𝙨𝙟𝙞𝙙𝙨 𝙏𝙤 𝙋𝙧𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙐𝙣𝙡𝙖𝙬𝙛𝙪𝙡, 𝘾𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙥𝙞𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙍𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝘼𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙨
As part of an ongoing crackdown against… pic.twitter.com/ApkNkBVa3p

— Srinagar Police (@SrinagarPolice) November 27, 2025

The searches were part of efforts to dismantle the “terror support ecosystem” in the city and to prevent any conspiracies aimed at disturbing peace and public order, the police said.

The operations were conducted in line with legal procedures “ensuring transparency and accountability at every stage”, the statement added.

The police said similar actions would continue wherever credible inputs indicate the presence of individuals or material linked to terror or radical activities.

It also urged citizens to cooperate with ongoing investigations and report suspicious activity.

Indian roads are increasingly becoming more dangerous for its most vulnerable users, an IndiaSpend analysis of national data shows. In a decade to 2023, road accident deaths increased 24% to about 173,000, but pedestrian deaths nearly tripled, those of two-wheeler riders nearly doubled, and cyclist deaths rose 13%.

In particular, two-wheeler deaths rose from accounting for 30% of all deaths in 2014 to 45% by 2023. Overall, every hour in 2014, India saw about five deaths of two-wheeler riders on average. This rose to about nine deaths per hour by 2023, the latest year for which data are available from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

In contrast, every other category of road users – cars and jeeps, trucks, buses and autorickshaws – saw fewer deaths in 2023 when compared to 2014.

This decrease signifies some improvement overall, considering that the number of highways and vehicles keeps increasing, said Ranjit Gadgil, Program Director at Parisar. “But this puts a sharper focus on vulnerable road users like pedestrians and motorcyclists,” he explained.

Gadgil pointed to three factors for the increase in two-wheeler fatalities: First, the sheer number of people relying on two-wheelers. In 2022, the latest year for which data are available, two-wheelers accounted for 74% of vehicles registered across India. “The WHO [World Health Organization] has actually pointed out that countries should try to reduce dependence on risky modes of transport like this,” he added.

Secondly, helmet use is still a major gap. “To be fully protected, the rider and pillion both need good-quality, ISI-marked helmets that are properly strapped on. Most people don’t tick all three boxes,” Gagdil explained.

And third, speed is a huge factor. “Once a two-wheeler crosses 40 or 50 kilometres per hour, any crash is likely to cause severe injury or worse. A crash at that speed could easily be fatal,” he said.

Lack of public transport options

India’s rising incomes and inadequate public transport options have accelerated private vehicle use, as per a 2021 study in the journal Springer Nature. Two-wheelers, as we said, accounted for 74% of all registered vehicles in 2022, up from 71% two decades ago.

Registered two-wheelers increased from about 139 million in 2014 to 263 million in 2022. Concurrently, the number of registered four-wheelers rose from 26 million to 49 million.

This surge in two-wheeler ownership reflects persistent gaps in affordable and reliable public transit, forcing millions–especially in rural and peri-urban areas–to depend on two-wheelers for daily mobility, according to experts like Gadgil. The resulting increase in unprotected road users combined with rising congestion has heightened safety risks across both urban and rural road networks.

“The use of two-wheelers to carry children is increasing because affordable bus transport for long distances is often unavailable,” said Geetam Tiwari, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre, Chair Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. “If safe bicycle and pedestrian paths to schools are not provided, parents tend to rely on two-wheelers to transport their children. For school-going children, bus transport should ideally be free, given the significant social benefits it provides.”

Another cohort that has seen the rise of two-wheeler use is gig workers and delivery partners for India’s booming online food and grocery industry. As of March this year, quick commerce platforms Blinkit and Swiggy together had an estimated 724,000 delivery partners.

Drivers are under constant pressure to meet delivery time limits, Tiwari said, explaining, “that’s why we see them taking shortcuts just to meet deadlines.” These unrealistic time targets are a huge safety concern and need to be regulated, she added.

We reached out to Zomato and Swiggy for comment on how they ensure driver safety. “Our processes are designed to prioritise safety over speed,” Shweta Dutt, corporate communications manager at Zomato, told IndiaSpend.

Riders complete a mandatory road safety module, are told not to overspeed or break traffic rules, and are not penalised for delays, she added. Partners are provided health and accident insurance and have access to ambulance assistance and rest points nationwide.

Rural India

Rural India accounts for a majority of road accident deaths (69%) – up from 59% a decade ago, our analysis of Ministry of Road Transport and Highways data shows. This is associated with a rise in the share of accidents – from 54% in 2019 to 61% in 2023.

Higher death rates in rural regions are driven by faster driving speeds, poor helmet compliance, weaker enforcement, and limited access to trauma care. On the other hand, the lack of adequate public transport in cities leads to crowding in the bus and rail systems, and people are forced to choose auto rickshaws, two-wheelers, private taxis and cars leading to congestion on roads, as per a 2023 study from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

These contrasting risk patterns underline the need for differentiated road safety strategies – enhancing trauma response and enforcement in rural areas while addressing congestion management and gig-worker safety in urban environments, according to this World Bank report from 2020.

Disaggregated data on type of vehicle for rural and urban areas are not available, but since 2019, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways reports include classification of road accidents in 50 Indian cities with populations of more than 1 million. Here too, the trends are similar: In 2023, two-wheeler riders, cyclists and pedestrians accounted for 74% road accident deaths, up from 59% in 2019.

Enforcement gaps

Of about 75,000 Indian two-wheeler riders or pillion riders who died in 2023, 73% did not wear a helmet, data show. “Unlike four-wheelers, the only globally recognised safety measure for two-wheeler users is wearing a helmet – and not just any helmet, but one that is of good quality and correctly strapped,” Geetam Tiwari said.

“Wearing an improperly strapped or poor-quality helmet is almost as risky as not wearing one at all,” she added. “Even with a properly worn helmet, its effectiveness reduces risk of fatal injury only by about 30% to 40%; the rest of the body remains unprotected, making two-wheeler travel inherently high-risk, especially at higher speeds.”

Ideally, helmet mandates should apply to bicyclists too, she said, but at the very least, any electric two-wheeler or small engine bike should require helmets.

In 2023, about 10% of accidents involved drivers without a valid license or those holding a learner’s license. Many licensed riders, however, still lack adequate road safety training due to weak enforcement and minimal skill-based evaluations.

“India’s current two-wheeler licensing system prioritises procedural issuance over competence and safety readiness,” said Piyush Tewari, founder and CEO of SaveLIFE Foundation, an independent non-profit focussed on improving road safety and emergency medical care. “Most licence holders have never undergone formal rider training, and existing tests are limited to basic manoeuvres conducted in controlled environments.”

Unlike countries such as Singapore, which follow multi-tiered licensing with graded training based on engine capacity India’s one-size-fits-all approach leaves novice and untrained riders highly vulnerable, he explained.

In 2023, 66% of road deaths were on straight highway stretches–where vehicle speeds tend to be high. Over half the deaths occurred in “open” areas, which “normally do not have any human activities in the vicinity”.

Overspeeding was indicted in 68% of road accident deaths, and wrong-side driving or lane indiscipline led to 5% deaths, data show. “Over-speeding often happens because people drive at speeds they feel comfortable with rather than following limits,” Geetam Tiwari said.

In order to enforce lower speeds – like 30–50 kmph – roads themselves need to be designed differently, especially near schools, with narrower lanes, textured surfaces, and speed humps, she explained. “Simply putting up speed limit signs isn’t enough, since wide, smooth, straight roads encourage speeding.”

In rural and peri-urban areas, the surge in traffic volume, particularly at access-controlled expressways intersecting with villages, raises conflict points and subsequently the number of crashes near villages increases, says Karuna Raina, director of public policy & research at SaveLIFE Foundation, told us in January 2025. “Moreover, while the design speeds for these roads are high, the corresponding road infrastructure – such as safety features, signage, lane markings, lighting and barriers – is often inadequate.”

Single-vehicle crashes are a major issue for two-wheelers, often caused by slipping or hitting roadside objects, and account for about 20%-22% of two-wheeler fatalities, highlighting the need to rethink road design, Geetam Tiwari said.

The way forward

Gadgil pointed to several gaps in road safety data. “For one, there’s a big delay – just look at the 2023 report; it’s only coming out now, even though the government has been digitising data for years.

“There’s also limited flexibility in the way the data is released. Right now, reports give fixed categories, like fatalities for ages 0–18, but if you want to break it down further – say, 0-4, 5-12, or 12-18 – you can’t. This matters for policy, like child restraint laws, where knowing exact age groups is critical. The data exists when accidents are recorded, but it isn’t shared in a usable way. There’s also the bigger issue of reliability – if what’s recorded is wrong, the output will be wrong,” he continued.

Working-age adults continue to be the most affected demographic in two-wheeler fatalities. In 2023, individuals aged 18-45 accounted for 66.4% of all road deaths. The vast majority of victims (85%) were male, reflecting the profile of commercial riders, gig workers, and young commuters who rely on two-wheelers for livelihood and mobility. This concentration of deaths among productive age groups translates into significant socio-economic losses, highlighting the urgency of targeted road safety interventions for these high-risk populations.

Reducing road-accident deaths and injuries by 50% and sustaining it over a period of 24 years could generate an additional flow of income equivalent to 14% of India’s 2014 gross domestic product (Rs 125 lakh crore or $2.03 trillion), as IndiaSpend reported in February 2020 based on a January 2018 study by the World Bank.

The government uses only police data to report road accident fatalities, ignoring sources such as hospitals, state and district level transport departments, as IndiaSpend reported in 2021. This makes it lopsided, experts say, because of the human and infrastructure resource shortages in police departments and biases among officials.

IndiaSpend reached out to Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the Transport & Road Safety department for comment. We will update this story when we receive a response.

This article first appeared on IndiaSpend, a data-driven and public-interest journalism non-profit.

The Assam government on Thursday passed a bill in the Assembly to ban polygamy.

The Assam Prohibition of Polygamy Bill, 2025, had been introduced on Tuesday. It proposes up to seven years of imprisonment for persons convicted of polygamy, the practice of having more than one wife. Further, those found guilty of having concealed their previous marriage can face punishment of up to ten years’ imprisonment.

It also states that if parents, priests or village heads hide a polygamous marriage from the police, or “unreasonably” delay providing such information to the authorities, they would also be held liable for abetting the offence.

Further, a priest who knowingly solemnises a polygamous marriage can be punished with imprisonment of up to two years.

Before the Assembly passed the bill, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma contended that the legislation was not against Islam, adding that several Muslim-majority countries had also prohibited polygamy, ANI reported.

“If this bill passes, then you will get a chance to be a true Muslim,” ANI quoted him as saying. “Countries like Turkey have also banned polygamy, there is an arbitration council in Pakistan.”

However, Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi told ANI that the bill undermines constitutional protections pertaining to freedom of consience and the freedom to manage religious affairs.

All India United Democratic Front MLA Aminul Islam said that his party opposed the bill’s preamble, adding that the legislation violates several provisions of the Constitution, ANI reported.

Meanwhile, Sarma added that if he returns as chief minister, he will introduce a Uniform Civil Code in the first session of the Assembly, ANI reported.

Assembly elections in Assam are expected to be held in the first half of 2026.

A Uniform Civil Code involves a common set of laws governing marriage, divorce, succession and adoption for all citizens. Currently, different religious communities are governed by their own codes of personal law.

The introduction of a common personal law has for long been on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s agenda and several states ruled by the party have been making advances towards implementing it. The BJP claims that the aim of the proposed law is to ensure equality and justice for women in particular, who are often denied their rights in marriage, divorce and inheritance.

Kerala’s Labour Minister V Sivankutty has said the state will not implement the Centre’s new labour codes. He said that the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment had convened a meeting of all states last month, during which Kerala reiterated its position against adopting the codes.

The Centre notified the implementation of four labour codes – which replace 29 labour laws – on November 21.

The Centre claims the new codes are aimed at extending coverage of statutory protection to platform workers. This includes need-based minimum wages, non-hazardous working conditions and universal social security entitlements.

However, critics have argued that the codes fail to extend social protection to the vast majority of informal sector workers. Read more.

The Assam government on Thursday passed a bill in the Assembly to ban polygamy. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma contended that the bill is not against Islam, and said that several Muslim-majority countries have also prohibited the practice.

However, Opposition leaders argued that the draft law violated constitutional provisions pertaining to the freedom of religion and the freedom to manage religious affairs.

The Assam Prohibition of Polygamy Bill, 2025, had been introduced on Tuesday. It proposes up to seven years of imprisonment for persons convicted of polygamy. Further, those found guilty of having concealed their previous marriage can face punishment of up to ten years’ imprisonment.

Sarma on Thursday also said that if he returns as chief minister, he will introduce a Uniform Civil Code in the first session of the Assembly. Read more.

The Supreme Court has said that it does not have a “magic wand” to solve the air pollution crisis in Delhi. Chief Justice Surya Kant said that there are several causes for the deteriorating air quality, and it is up to scientists and experts to find a solution to the problem.

“I know this [pollution] is hazardous for Delhi-NCR,” Kant told amicus curiae Aparajita Singh. “...Tell me, what can we direct so that there is clean air immediately.”

The court made the remarks on a day when Delhi’s air quality index was recorded at the higher end of the “very poor” category. A day earlier, the Commission for Air Quality Management withdrew the Stage 3 restrictions, citing improved air quality.

The restrictions under the GRAP 1 and GRAP 2 remain in force. Read more.

Former AIADMK leader KA Sengottaiyan has joined actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, a day after resigning as the Gobichettipalayam MLA. The nine-time MLA had been with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam for nearly 50 years, but was removed on October 31 following internal differences.

In September, Sengottaiyan had publicly urged AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami to consider reinstating expelled leaders, including O Panneerselvam, TTV Dhinakaran and VK Sasikala, arguing that wider reconciliation would strengthen the organisation.

He was relieved of his responsibilities in the organisation at the time and later expelled for violating party discipline.

On Thursday, Sengottaiyan was appointed as the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam’s secretary for four districts – Coimbatore, Erode, Tiruppur and the Nilgiris. Read more.

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The Supreme Court on Thursday directed comedians Samay Raina, Vipul Goyal, Balraj Paramjeet Singh Ghai, Sonali Thakkar and Nishant Jagadish Tanwar to telecast programmes in their shows highlighting success stories of persons with disabilities, Live Law reported.

The comedians were directed to do so as reparation for allegedly insensitive jokes they made on their shows about persons with disabilities.

The court said the shows should also aim to raise funds for the treatment of disabled persons, especially those with Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

The directions were issued in a petition filed by Cure SMA Foundation seeking guidelines against jokes that violate the dignity of persons with disabilities.

The petition was prompted by a joke made by Raina about a child with Spinal Muscular Atrophy. The comedians had earlier appeared before the Court and were directed to publish public apologies on their platforms.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that the comedians must host such programmes at least twice a month and may invite persons with disabilities to their platforms to raise awareness and support for those suffering from rare diseases such as Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Live Law reported.

The comedians’ counsel requested that the frequency be reduced, arguing that they do not host shows regularly and that events are usually organised by sponsors.

The bench declined to modify the order. “This is a social burden we are putting on you,” the judges said, suggesting the comedians could use their YouTube channels if needed, Live Law reported. The counsel then agreed.

Kerala Labour Minister V Sivankutty on Thursday said the state will not implement the Centre’s new labour codes, PTI reported.

He said that the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment had convened a meeting of all states last month, during which Kerala reiterated its position that it would not adopt the codes, PTI reported.

On November 21, the Union government notified the implementation of four labour codes.

The Parliament had cleared the Code on Wages in 2019 and the rest of the three codes – Industrial Relations Code, Code on Social Security, and Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code – in 2020.

After their implementation, the four codes replaced 29 labour laws.

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led Union government has claimed that the reform is aimed at extending coverage of statutory protection, including need-based minimum wages, non-hazardous working conditions and universal social security entitlements, to platform workers.

However, critics have argued that the codes fail to extend social protection to the vast majority of informal sector workers, including migrant workers, self-employed workers and home-based workers.

Trade unions had in 2020 protested against the codes, stating that they allow employers to hire and fire workers more easily, arguing that they have no safeguards for workers, make it harder for workers to negotiate better terms and wages with employers and make strikes more difficult.

On Thursday, the minister also said that any future steps on the labour codes would be taken only after consultations with trade unions, The New Indian Express reported.

Sivakutty’s statement came a day after a joint forum of 10 central trade unions, farmers’ body Samyukt Kisan Morcha and members of the All India Power Engineers Federation held nationwide protests against the four labour codes.

On November 22, the 10 central trade unions in a statement had described the new labour codes as being “anti-worker and pro-employer”.

The Supreme Court on Thursday said that it does not have a magic wand to solve the air pollution crisis in Delhi, Bar and Bench reported.

Chief Justice Surya Kant said that there are several causes for the deteriorating air quality in the national capital and it is up to scientists and experts to find a solution to the problem.

“Then we have to see what can be the solutions in each region,” Kant said. “Let us see what the government has constituted in terms of committee.”

“What magic wand can a judicial forum exercise?” Live Law quoted Kant as saying. “I know this is hazardous for Delhi-NCR...Tell me, what can we direct so that there is clean air immediately.”

The comment came after amicus curiae Aparajita Singh mentioned the matter for listing, saying that the air pollution in the national capital was a “health emergency”.

An amicus curiae is a person who is not a party to the case but provides advice or information to the court.

Kant said that the matter needs to be monitored regularly. The bench will hear it next on Monday.

Air quality deteriorates sharply in the winter months in Delhi, which is often ranked the world’s most polluted capital.

Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, vehicular pollution, along with the lighting of firecrackers during Diwali, falling temperatures, decreased wind speeds and emissions from industries and coal-fired plants contribute to the problem.

Delhi has been recording air quality in the “poor” or worse categories since mid-October, leading to Stage 3 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan being imposed on November 11.

GRAP is a set of incremental anti-pollution measures that are triggered to prevent further worsening of air quality once it reaches a certain threshold in the Delhi-NCR region.

On Wednesday, the Commission for Air Quality Management withdrew the Stage 3 restrictions, citing improved air quality. The restrictions under the GRAP 1 and GRAP 2 remain in force.

At 2.05 pm on Thursday, Delhi’s average Air Quality Index stood at 373, placing it at the higher end of the “very poor” category, as per the Sameer application, which provides hourly updates from the Central Pollution Control Board.

The AQI at 13 of the 39 monitoring stations in Delhi recorded readings above 400, categorised as “severe”, the data showed.

An index value between 0 and 50 indicates “good” air quality, between 51 and 100 indicates “satisfactory” air quality and between 101 and 200 indicates “moderate” air quality. As the index value increases further, air quality deteriorates. A value of 201 and 300 means “poor” air quality, while between 301 and 400 indicates “very poor” air.

Between 401 and 450 indicates “severe” air pollution, while anything above the 450 threshold is termed “severe plus”.

Expressing dissatisfaction with the efficacy of self-regulatory mechanisms, the Supreme Court on Thursday emphasised the need for a neutral, independent and autonomous body to regulate obscene, offensive or illegal content on online platforms, Live Law reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing petitions filed by podcaster Ranveer Allahabadia and others challenging the first information reports against them for making sexually explicit remarks during an episode of the YouTube show India’s Got Latent in February.

The bench had expanded the scope of the matter to consider guidelines against obscenity on online platforms.

Attorney General R Venkataramani and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the court that the Union government has proposed to introduce new guidelines, Live Law reported. The government is consulting the stakeholders, they submitted.

Mehta was quoted as saying that the matter was not only about obscenity but perversity in user-generated content that is posted on persons on platforms such as their own YouTube channels.

The chief justice expressed surprise that there is no regulation of content creators. “So I create my own channel, I am not accountable to anyone...somebody has to be accountable!” Live Law quoted Kant as saying.

The counsel representing the Indian Broadcast and Digital Foundation said that regulations are in place in the form of the 2021 Information Technology Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code Rules.

The rules have been challenged before the Delhi High Court.

The counsel said that despite the stay of some of the provisions of the rules, the video streaming platforms had been voluntarily following the Digital Media Ethics Code by labelling the nature of content and giving age classifications, Live Law reported.

There is also a body headed by retired Justice Gita Mittal to deal with complaints against content, he added.

The chief justice expressed reservations about the self-regulatory model and said that there is a need for statutory regulations.

“Self-styled bodies will not help…” Kant was quoted as saying. “Some neutral autonomous bodies, which are free from the influence of those who exploit all of this and the state also, is needed as a regulatory measure.”

Kant questioned how there were repeated instances of violations if self-regulation was indeed effective.

Bagchi asked whether the creator would take responsibility if the content is “perceived as anti-national or disruptive of society’s norms”.

“Will self-regulation be sufficient?” he was quoted as having asked. “The difficulty we are facing is the response time. Once the scurrilous material is uploaded, by the time the authorities react, it has gone viral, to millions of viewers, so how do you control that?”

During the hearings earlier this year, the court had said that it intended to do something to regulate allegedly obscene content on YouTube and social media platforms. It had in March urged the Union government to formulate guidelines.

Kant had told the attorney general during an earlier hearing that guidelines framed by the government to regulate online content must balance freedoms and duties.

Also read: Why the Supreme Court’s new push to regulate social media threatens free expression

As winter in North India arrives with a persistent sting in the throat, the Union Health Ministry has issued an advisory to states and Union territories on air pollution. It explains who is most at risk, how hospitals should prepare and what the public ought to do.

On the face of it, it may simply seem like a routine governmental circular. However, on closer examination, it tells a deeper story about how the Indian state imagines health, risk and responsibility.

The document defines key pollutants, lists vulnerable groups and explains India’s Air Quality Index, It points to early-warning systems and app and tells health systems how to prepare for the seasonal spike in respiratory diseases.

It attaches model messages for social media and advisories for schools and construction sites, quietly revealing that the Indian state likes to govern health crises through advisories, invocations of behavioural change and through an alliance of experts and bureaucrats that rarely has to sit in the same room as those who live with the consequences.

The document walks through each level of the Air Quality Index, highlights what symptoms might worsen and suggests what is to be done at each step. It directs state health authorities to the Sameer app which provides provides hourly updates on the National Air Quality Index and to early-warning systems that forecast pollution levels a few days in advance. States are told to watch the AQI numbers and to prepare health facilities accordingly. Individuals are told to change their behaviour.

Health Ministry issues Advisory on Air Pollution. Health impacts of air pollution vary with pollution levels, exposure duration, and individual vulnerability. Age, pre-existing health conditions, and other demographic factors can influence risk.@MoHFW_INDIA #HealthAdvisory pic.twitter.com/XbprKuuVK8

— DD NEWS JAMMU | डीडी न्यूज़ जम्मू (@ddnews_jammu) November 12, 2025

The advisory acknowledges that economically disenfranchised families using biomass for cooking, people who sweep streets or work at construction sites and people who live in cramped, poorly ventilated housing are more exposed and therefore more at risk. Yet, when it comes to recommendations, the burden of protection falls on individuals and households.

It recognises that a worker on a construction site is exposed to dust all day. It suggests masks and health check-ups, but it does not directly tie this to labour law and workplace safety regulation. Vulnerability is acknowledged, but responsibility is quietly shifted downwards.

The advisory asks states to integrate air-pollution risks into climate and health action plans, to designate sentinel hospitals to track pollution-related illness, to prepare facilities for seasonal spikes, and to strengthen respiratory care. This framing reveals the limits of how the health system is being imagined.

Health facilities and staff are framed as responders. They monitor, they treat, and they counsel. However, if the health sector only adapts without becoming a strong institutional voice against polluting industries, weak enforcement and inequitable urban planning, then the underlying drivers of the crisis remain intact.

Anyone middle class who can work from home should, because for 50% of Delhi to WFH, we need to make the space for 100% of the Safai karamcharis, gig workers, domestic workers, waste workers, tailors, doodhnath walas and sabji walas- all those who can’t WFH.

The privileged need…

— Bharati Chaturvedi (@Bharati09) November 24, 2025

The advisory sketches a political arrangement in which decisions about air, health, and risk sit firmly in the hands of a small circle of ministries and expert institutions, while everyone else is asked to adjust their lives around those choices.

There is a quiet bargain on offer, with the state giving citizens more information, more warnings and more advisories. In return, citizens are expected to accept that this is how the situation is for now. This is a system that is learning how to live with chronic harm rather than insisting that such harm is intolerable and more importantly, avoidable.

The advisory’s language of solidarity and cooperation, that “…together, we can work towards a healthier, cleaner and more resilient ecosystem…”, hides the fact that people are not equally placed in this crisis.

A family with multiple air purifiers and a worker who must sweep a main road early morning in December do not share the same choices. Yet the advisory speaks to them almost in one breath. That is where the politics lies: in presenting unequal exposure as if it were a shared, neutral condition, while the arrangements that made the air toxic in the first place stay largely untouched.

Stubble burning has dropped after reaching its peak this season. But the air in Delhi is still toxic. Gentle reminder that the city's own sources, especially vehicular emission, is behind this. And yet, Delhi doesnt do enough to combat it.https://t.co/NBChTr1fP7

— Vaishnavi Rathore (@_Vaishnavi_R) November 24, 2025

What would it mean for the state to respond differently?

It would mean taking the advisory’s recognition of vulnerable groups and following that logic all the way through. If certain segments of the population are at higher risk, then minimum standards for workplace safety, labour protections and access to clean cooking fuels have to become central to air-pollution policy.

The health ministry’s own advisory could explicitly demand that other ministries and state departments act on this evidence, rather than simply stopping at awareness.

It would also require the state and the scientific community to engage with these vulnerable groups as partners to map exposure and think through solutions. Imagine health advisories co-written with those who endure the worst of bad air.

None of this is easy. It is slower than issuing an advisory. But it is also more in line with the idea of a democratic health system that sees people as citizens whose knowledge and experience matter.

This is Mumbai, India’s financial capital, covered in a thick layer of pollution. Worli is no more visible from the sea link. We are no better than Delhi NCR as far as pollution is concerned. What is our govt doing to protect us from inhaling poison?@Dev_Fadnavis @CMOMaharashtra pic.twitter.com/0cyfs43CEG

— Nidhi Jamwal (@JamwalNidhi) November 24, 2025

I live with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, the kind of chronic breathlessness that does not wait for a “severe” AQI day to show up. It sits in the chest like a tightness that can be managed and worked around on most days until the air changes.

It is a strange thing to be writing about a public health concern and, at the same time, being reduced to a statistic on an advisory. So, when I read an advisory that tells people like me to “stay indoors” on very polluted days, or to “avoid exertion”, there is a quiet helplessness at play.

There are days when it feels as if the responsibility for survival has been passed down to those of us with broken lungs.

There is still, however, the possibility that our shortness of breath can be a starting point for demanding a politics of air that is less about enduring and more about changing the conditions that made breathing this hard in the first place.

Rishabh Kachroo is an independent researcher working on the public understanding of science and the larger knowledge politics questions that surround it.

The Supreme Court has directed the Union government, state governments and the University Grants Commission to submit details of the functioning, governance and regulation of all private and deemed universities, Live Law reported.

A bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and NV Anjaria passed the order on November 20 while hearing a writ petition by a student who had changed her name from Khushi Jain to Ayesha Jain in 2021.

She alleged that when she applied for an MBA course at Amity University, Noida, in 2024, officials at the institution refused to recognise her legal name change. Due to this, she could not fulfil the minimum attendance criteria, causing loss of an academic year.

She also alleged that the university officials harassed her for changing to a “Muslim name”, reported Live Law.

The court had earlier ordered the university to pay compensation to the petitioner. After the university paid her Rs 1 lakh, the bench on October 14 stated that the compensation amounts to a “mockery of the court’s sentiments”.

On November 20, it converted the case into a public interest litigation concerning the regulation of private universities.

The bench sought information regarding the provisions of law under which private and deemed universities functioning in the country were established, the circumstances surrounding their approval, any concessions or benefits granted, including land allotments or preferential treatment, and the conditions of such benefits, Live Law reported.

It also asked for full disclosure of the societies or trusts managing the universities, their aims and objectives, and the composition and selection process of the top decision-making bodies.

In addition, the University Grants Commission was ordered to submit an affidavit detailing its statutory and policy mandates, as well as the mechanisms it employs to monitor compliance, covering admissions, faculty recruitment and regulatory checks, Live Law reported.

The court highlighted three key areas for scrutiny: whether the institutions operate on a genuinely “no-profit, no-loss” basis, the grievance redressal mechanisms available for students and staff, and compliance with minimum salary standards for faculty and employees.

“If there is any attempt to withhold/suppress/misrepresent/misstate facts in the affidavits called for, this court will be compelled to adopt a strict view,” the order stated.

On February 29, 2024, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved three semiconductor units as part of the government’s push to build a domestic semiconductor industry. Two units were led by the Tata Group.

As part of a scheme to incentivise semiconductor production, the Centre agreed to underwrite half the cost of building the units. For the two units of the Tata Group, this subsidy comes to Rs 44,203 crore.

Four weeks after the Cabinet approval, the Tata Group donated Rs 758 crore to the Bharatiya Janata Party. This makes it the party’s biggest donor in the run-up to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, surpassing any political donation made in 2023-’24, based on the disclosures made to the Election Commission so far.

In all, 15 firms of the Tata Group gave away nearly Rs 915 crore in political donations in 2024-’25. The donations were transferred to political parties via the group’s Progressive electoral trust. The highest amount came from the holding firm, Tata Sons Private Limited, which gave Rs 308 crore.

After the BJP, the second-highest recipient of the donations was the Congress party, which received Rs 77.3 crore – about one-tenth of the amount the BJP got. Eight other political parties received Rs 10 crore each from the group.

The Tata Group’s donation fits a larger pattern of corporations that bagged government incentives for semiconductor projects funding the BJP.

The third semiconductor unit approved by the government in February is being set up by the Tamil Nadu-based Murugappa group, with 50% of the cost – Rs 3,501 crore – being underwritten by the government.

As Scroll had reported earlier this year, days after the approval, the Murugappa group had donated Rs 125 crore to the BJP.

Ramesh Kunhikannan, the managing director of Kaynes Technology, also donated Rs 12 crore to the BJP in 2023-’24, according to the party’s contribution report. In September 2024, his firm, Kaynes Semicon Private Limited, received an approval to set up a semiconductor unit in Sanand, Gujarat.

The Tata Group’s Progressive electoral trust did not make any donations to political parties between 2021 and 2024 – until the Rs 758 crore-transfer in April 2024, days ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

Scroll sent questions to a spokesperson of Tata Sons about the timing of the donations to the BJP but had not received a response at the time of publication. Questions sent to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which oversees India’s semiconductor industry, also went unanswered. This report will be updated if there is a reply.

Modi government’s semiconductor push

In 2021, the Modi government announced a host of schemes under the India Semiconductor Mission to encourage companies to set up semiconductor units. It was a push to create a local semiconductor industry, especially after the Covid pandemic disrupted India’s automobile sector – including firms such as Tata Motors. The sector relies heavily on semiconductor imports from China and Taiwan.

The mission offered thousands of crores of rupees in government subsidies to corporations that would enter this key sector. This included 50% central subsidy on capital expenditure to build semiconductors units, with additional financial support from state governments.

The 157-year-old Tata Group’s semiconductor ambitions are at least as old as the government mission. In 2021, Tata Sons acquired a telecom firm that months later bought a majority stake in an Indian semiconductor design firm.

In 2022 and 2023, it announced strategic partnerships with Japan’s Renesas Electronics Corporation and US-based Micron Technology – both significant global players in the semiconductor industry.

When the Union cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Modi approved state support for three semiconductor units (two in Gujarat and one in Assam, both governed by the BJP), the Tata Group bagged two of these units.

The first was a facility to turn raw silicon wafers into finished integrated circuits in Dholera, Gujarat, in partnership with Taiwan-based Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. The second was a unit to assemble, test and package chips in Morigaon, Assam.

According to the government, the Tata Group will invest Rs 1.18 lakh crore in the two units and create up to 46,000 direct and indirect jobs. A part of its investment is covered by the 50% central government subsidy, which according to an Indian Express report comes to Rs 44,203 crore.

Earlier, the Economic Times had reported that the Assam government would also be giving additional incentives to the Tata Group for the facility it was setting up in the state.

“This marks the beginning of a new era for India,” said Randhir Thakur, CEO and MD of Tata Electronics, on the day of the cabinet decision. “Tata Electronics is proud to play a prominent role in strengthening the global semiconductor ecosystem.”

BJP rakes in crores

Just a month after the Union Cabinet’s approval of its semiconductor units, the Tata Group donated Rs 757.6 crore to the BJP.

These transactions were made through the Progressive electoral trust. One of the directors of the trust, Jehangir Nariman Mistry, also sits on the boards of several Tata trusts, the organisations that hold a majority stake in Tata Sons.

The trust’s latest disclosure to the Election Commission shows that 15 firms of the Tata Group – including Tata Sons, Tata Consultancy Services and Tata Steel – contributed Rs 915 crore to Progressive on April 2, 2024.

The same day, the trust donated Rs 914.9 crore to 10 political parties. The largest cheque of Rs 757.6 crore, that is 82% of total donations, was cut for the BJP.

The Congress party received Rs 77.3 crore. Eight other political parties – All India Trinamool Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, Shiv Sena, Biju Janata Dal, YSR Congress, Janata Dal (United), Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi – received Rs 10 crore each.

The date for contributions and donations in the trust’s disclosure statement is recorded as October 24, 2025. But the trust clarified that the date had been incorrectly recorded because of a glitch in the Election Commission’s system.

An unprecedented donation

The BJP has been the largest beneficiary of political finance in the last decade. The Tata Group’s donation to the party on April 2, 2024, is larger than any other donation made to a political party in 2023-’24, based on the information available so far.

The 2024-’25 donations of the Prudent electoral trust, which has a history of making large donations to the BJP, are yet to be made public.

The Tata Group had last made political donations through the Progressive trust in 2018-’19. That year’s disclosure is not available with the Election Commission, but contribution reports of the Trinamool Congress, the Shiv Sena, the Congress and the BJP show that the group donated at least Rs 478 crore that year. Of this, Rs 356 crore went to the BJP.

Between 2014-’15 and 2017-’18, disclosures made to the Election Commission do not record any donations by the trust. The trust’s disclosure for 2019-’20 is not available in the public domain. Contribution reports of political parties do not reveal any donations by the trust during that year either. Between 2021-’22 and 2023-’24, the trust did not make any donations.

India’s immensely respected economist and public intellectual Prabhat Patnaik masterfully assembles in the pages of a short monograph the sweep of India’s post-colonial economic history. This is in his forthcoming Socialism and the Indian Constitution (part of a series of short volumes that Neera Chandoke and I are editing for the Centre for Equity Studies on the principal ideas of the constitution, published by Speaking Tiger).

He begins with unpacking India’s constitutional idea of socialism. He explains what drives this idea of socialism, what promises it contains, and how this varies from Marxist notions of socialism.

In this volume, he evaluates (not unfavourably) the partial accomplishments of socialism in the early decades of the republic, the jettisoning of the socialist ideals amid the juggernaut of neo-liberalism, and its consequences of staggering inequality and furthering the impoverishment of the Indian peasant and worker.

He persuasively uncovers the necessary alliance of monopoly capital today with neo-fascism in Modi’s India. He concludes with an assessment of the profound dangers of the Trumpian global order, and speaks of both the imperative and prospects of reclaiming and rebuilding socialism for a more egalitarian country.

Marxist, anti-colonial notions of socialism

The Congress in India laid out a socialist agenda in the Karachi conference of 1931. India, Patnaik observes, was not alone among countries across the Global South that waged anti-colonial struggles, in placing socialism high in its imagination for countries freed from colonial bondage. We see socialism high in the agenda of many Arab and African freedom struggles. The fundamental difference with the Marxist-Leninist conceptions of socialism was that Marxists saw socialism to be a historical necessity with the focus on changes in the ownership and the building of a community of the working classes.

For post-colonial countries, including India, socialism was a normative idea, of building out of the ravages of colonialism a country that was more egalitarian; to end exploitation and poverty, and to secure for every citizen of every class, caste, gender, religion equality of opportunity. For those who came together to debate and write the Indian Constitution, democracy, secularism and socialism were inextricably conjoined in their imagination of a more equal and just country.

But in recent years, supporters of the BJP-led ruling regime have raised the demand that the words “secular” and “socialist” be deleted from the constitution, because they were added later, during India’s Emergency. However, turning down a petition to remove the word “socialist” from India’s constitution, India’s Chief Justice in November 2024 rejected this plea. He enunciated the features of constitutional socialism to be to secure equality of opportunity for all citizens through building a welfare state.

This, Patnaik underlines, differs from Marxist socialism insofar as while both Marxist and post-colonial socialism seek to accomplish equality of opportunity, Marxists believe that this is possible only with the social ownership of the means of production. India’s post-colonial socialism focussed on the results of an egalitarian order and not questions of ownership.

Patnaik observes that it was only Ambedkar among the leaders of the freedom struggle who saw in socialism not just the goal of greater egalitarianism but also the building of a new community. When he called for the annihilation of caste, he believed that only this would build the foundations of the new “community” in free India. This too is a goal neglected in the building of socialism in free India.

Practice of Indian socialism

Indian socialism in the early decades of the republic accorded space for the private corporate sector, while installing the state in the commanding heights of the economy. What India achieved in this phase, Patnaik points out, was a relative autonomy from imperialism. The regime confronted metropolitan capital mainly through the agency of the public sector. This manifested itself in the nationalisation of natural resources and finance that had earlier served the colonial pattern of the international order, and the building of self-reliance in both production and technology.

The nationalisation of 14 private banks in 1969, observes Patnaik, was a very significant step for Indian advancing the goals of Indian socialism. It was not fashioned as a decisive blow to finance capital but to ensure that India’s farm sector and petty producers could access bank credit which until then was mostly cornered by corporate private capital.

Patnaik also feels that the oft-repeated critique of the “quota-license-permit-raj” is somewhat misplaced. India chose to bar foreign capital inflows as these would impose conditions on state policy that would vary vastly from the socialist goals of the country. As a result, since foreign exchange reserves were limited, the state needed to regulate private industry to ration foreign exchange reserves.

Patnaik also answers critics of India’s choice of “self-reliance” over export-led growth. Export-led growth would have prioritised industry over agriculture. Self-reliant growth, on the other hand, ensured that agriculture and industry grew in tandem. Second, colonialism had ravaged India’s economy by a regime of forced trade, in which India produced primary commodities and imported manufactures. India needed to rebuild its production structure outside of and independent of trade, before a more egalitarian engagement with trade could become possible. These choices, Patnaik argues, were in conformity with anti-colonial nationalism.

So, too, was India’s education policy in the early decades. Borrowing Gramsci’s phrase, its objective was to create “organic intellectuals” of free India.

There were many achievements of this period that Patnaik points to. India’s per capita availability of food rose after half a century of decline under colonialism. Terrible famines became a thing of the past. The magnitude of absolute poverty stabilised, but did not increase. The share of the top 1% in the national income which was 12% in 1947 fell to 6% in 1982 (and it has risen greatly since then, as we shall see). Therefore, India did make some progress to a more egalitarian order, despite limitations that Patnaik identifies.

Even before the advent of neo-liberalism, Patnaik points to several limitations in accomplishing equality of opportunity even during the first decades of the Indian republic in which the executive proclaimed its commitment to advance socialism. India’s growth rate was much higher than in colonial times, but tied as it was to a slow-growing agriculture, it was not high enough to make a sufficient dent to the massive unemployment inherited from colonialism. Sufficient public resources were not invested in agriculture, as compared to industry.

One major failing of this phase, according to Patnaik, was the failure of land reforms. It made some headway in states like West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Karnataka and Telangana. But for the country as a whole, it did little to reduce the concentration of land ownership.

Another paramount failing in securing the goal of equality of opportunity was the continuance of significant levels of unemployment, or what Marx called the reserve army of labour. The second was untaxed inheritance. As Patnaik points out, a worker’s son could hardly have the same opportunities as the son of a billionaire who inherits millions. Differences in wealth also needed to be more effectively controlled if we were to achieve even a modicum of equal opportunities.

Further, we did not invest in a public education system that ensures free and equal educational opportunities to all, irrespective of wealth, income, caste and gender. The same applies to the failure to establish a public health system that assures free or affordable quality health care to all persons.

The neo-liberal age

But still, the first decades of the Indian republic were rooted in anti-colonial nationalism, despite many missed chances. However, this regime of partial, imperfect but still significant commitment to socialism as defined in India’s constitution was rapidly dismantled from the mid-1980s by a new regime of neo-liberalism. This gave way from the mid-1980s to what Patnaik calls “GDP nationalism”, very far from Gandhiji’s vision of wiping every tear from every eye. The rising bourgeoise and middle classes sought an accelerated growth strategy shorn of socialist and egalitarian aspirations. Instead, the aspiration was to accomplish high GDP growth elevating India to the high table of major economic powers.

This entailed opening barriers and incentivising international capital, and encouraging domestic corporate-financial oligarchy even with budgetary transfers and concessions that moved resources away from social goods like public education and public health. This ushered in the neo-liberal order, which was a regime that enabled the free movement of goods, services, capital and above all finance across international borders.

This effectively marked, according to Patnaik, a move away from the sovereignty of the people to the sovereignty of international capital, with deleterious implications for democracy. This was because the fear of the “flight of capital” made economic policy beholden not to the wishes of the people but to the demands of international capital. This resulted in a sharp decline in welfare services, in public healthcare and education, and in the capacity of the state to tackle unemployment through rises in public spending. This regime shifted the burden of taxation from the rich to working people.

He also describes the reasons for the persisting crisis of employment under neo-liberalism, even as global capital shifted production to the global south to take advantage of the lower wages resulting from a massive reserve army of labour. This still does not lead to a rising graph of employment in the global south, partly because of the massive crisis of petty production and agriculture that threw millions of workers into unemployment, and partly because of the incentive built into corporate profit-maximisation to resort to labour-saving technologies. The cumulative result of massive and stubborn levels of unemployment was that real wages in the global south did not rise, because the reserve army of labour does not diminish.

The result also was a massive growth in inequality. Patnaik points to the World Inequality Data base that showed that the share of the top 1% in the national income rose from a low of 6% in 1982 to nearly 23% in 2023. This entailed a burgeoning shift in income from the working classes – from peasants, informal labour, petty producers – to the richer classes. The large reserve army of labour and the worsening of chronic unemployment also led to an increase in the incidence of absolute poverty even as GDP continued to rise sometimes dizzyingly.

In effect, Patnaik says, neo-liberalism entails an acceptance of the hegemony of capital over labour and of capitalists over the rest of society. It negates the equality of opportunity that is the cornerstone of socialism as an aspiration for egalitarianism, that we saw to be a necessary complement to democracy. Internationally, it also eroded the solidarity between nations of the global south of the Non-Aligned Movement into a Darwinian competition between each other.

Complementary rise of neo-fascism

Patnaik also outlines importantly the rise of neo-fascism in recent years as a necessary complement to neo-liberalism. He points to Javer Milei in Argentina, Donald Trump in the United States, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel and Narendra Modi in India.

Waiting in the wings almost everywhere are far-right parties like the AfD in Germany and Marine Le Pen in France. They all troublingly share important characteristics with the fascists of the 1930s: authoritarianism, the “othering” of certain vulnerable minorities, the rise of violent youth groups, a disdain for reason in the public discourse, the rise of the “supreme leader” and a close relationship with monopoly capital.

Fascism rises in contexts of the crisis of capitalism; and Patnaik believes that contemporary neo-fascism is the outcome of the crisis of neo-liberalism. When monopoly capital is threatened, they finance fascists groups and bring the media under their control. These build a discourse of the alleged harms done by the “othered” minority on the dominant majority, and demand violent vengeance. The mass unemployment also makes it easy for the fascist groups to find recruits to carry forward the hate-filled, violent and divisive agenda.

The Indian version of fascism – Hindu supremacism – is, Patnaik believes, the closest to the classic description of fascism. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh made no secret at the time of its formation of its admiration for European fascism, and it has not retracted from this. It has specially expressed admiration for the fascist youth wings, echoed today in India in the Bajrang Dal and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

Modi’s rise, he observes, was explicitly planned by monopoly capitalists, and Modi in turn has been an unstinting backer of the corporate-financial oligarchy and international capital. This has also made the BJP the richest political party in the world. Modi has weakened labour rights with a new code of highly repressive labour laws, and tried to extend corporate control even over agriculture, a move powerfully resisted by Indian farmers.

With the manifest failures of neo-liberalism to “trickle down” to the working poor, the Hindutva-corporate alliance resorts to diversionary polarising policies of Hindu supremacism, with a discourse that the Hindu majority at last is able to live with its head high, even as the regime persists with its neo-liberal anti-worker, anti-farmer, anti-minority, anti-Dalit, anti-Adivasi, anti-poor policies.

Patnaik points to important differences between the old fascism of the 1930s and neo-fascism. The old fascism was characterised by national finance capitals in mutual rivalry, resulting in the world wars. Neo-fascism on the other hand is characterised by international capital, which is opposed to the division of the world into rival spheres of influence. This makes neo-fascism much harder to dislodge as compared to the old fascism. The old fascism was accommodative of fiscal deficits to finance enhanced public spending, including on armaments, in a way that neo-fascism is not. The old fascism was therefore able to address to a degree the extreme job crises in the Great Depression. The nation state today does not feel free to expand deficit financing even to deal with burgeoning unemployment. This failure requires them to whip up hate against the “other” even more decisively.

The rise of neo-fascism rapidly culminates the decimation of democracy and the principles of the constitution that is spurred by neo-liberalism. What begins with the hegemony of international capital has now grown in Indian into a full-fledged assault on democracy, including the ruthless targeting of minorities, suppression of dissent, jailing for years without trial of young dissenters, the control of the university so as to not allow young minds to develop critical thinking and the targeting of the intelligentsia. Policy is designed to fully to serve the interests of chosen segments of the crony capitalists. The public sector including banks give credit now not to petty producers and peasants but to big capital, which they rarely return.

The result is that democracy, socialism, egalitarianism, federalism and secularism are all sacrificed on the later of the march of Hindutva and the interests of chosen crony capitalists. Without formally repudiating the constitution, the Hindutva- crony capitalist combine has done everything to destroy the basic features of the constitution.

Universal economic rights

Patnaik ends his compelling, even magisterial treatise by lighting the pathways to reclaim the values and pledges of the Indian Constitution that was born out of the anti-colonial struggle, particularly socialism.

This requires first a regime of fundamental economic rights, which he lists as the rights to food, employment, school education and universal public health care. He calculates that this would not cost more than 10% of the gross domestic product, which could be fully financed by a wealth tax of 2% and an inheritance tax of one-third. However, this would require the political will to tax the rich. In times of the comprehensive capture of public policy by big business and majoritarian impulses, building this political will would be immensely challenging.

The restoration of socialism in India, Patnaik rightly observes, would require the same steely public resolve of the people of the global south as characterised the anti-colonial struggle.

Harsh Mander is a peace and justice worker, writer, teacher who leads the Karwan e Mohabbat, a people’s campaign to fight hate with radical love and solidarity. He teaches part-time at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University, and has authored many books, including Partitions of the Heart, Fatal Accidents of Birth and Looking Away.

November 26 is Constitution Day.

Three booth-level officers in Uttar Pradesh have died in the past two days because of alleged work pressure related to the revision of voter rolls in the state.

While two died by suicide, one collapsed on duty.

The revision exercise is underway in 12 states and Union Territories, including Uttar Pradesh. Booth-level officers began distributing enumeration forms on November 4.

Gonda

Assistant Teacher Vipin Yadav died by suicide in Gonda district on Tuesday, The Hindu reported. His family alleged that the booth-level officer was under pressure because of the voter list revision exercise.

Yadav consumed poison and was taken to a local hospital. He was later transferred to a hospital in Lucknow, but was declared dead on arrival, The Times of India reported.

A video recorded by Yadav’s wife before his death showed him alleging that he was under extreme pressure from officials assigned to supervise the voter list revision exercise.

He also alleged that the sub-divisional magistrate and the block development officer routinely misbehaved with him, according to The Times of India.

District Magistrate Priyanka Niranjan rejected the allegations, saying that there was no pressure related to the revision exercise. Niranjan told the newspaper that Yadav’s work was progressing as normal.

She added that Yadav may have been instigated to make the allegations and that the video was being investigated.

Niranjan also formed a panel led by the assistant superintendent of police and the chief revenue officer to probe Yadav’s death.

Yadav’s family claimed that he had been asked to delete names of members of the Other Backward Classes community, The Hindu reported.

“The SDM and the BDO threatened him and asked him to remove the names of OBC voters,” the newspaper quoted his relative as having alleged in a video widely shared online. “Before dying, he told me over the phone that the officers were threatening to suspend him.”

The district administration rejected the allegation, The Hindu reported.

"SDM, BDO and lekhpal were pressuring him (BLO Vipin Yadav) to delete OBC votes. They were threatening him with suspension and police action," said relative of BLO Vipin Yadav who allegedly killed himself by consuming poison in Gonda district of Uttar Pradesh. https://t.co/0D4Ugx4rnr pic.twitter.com/44vkuQwdkC

— Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) November 26, 2025

Fatehpur

Revenue clerk Sudhir Kumar died by suicide at his home in Fatehpur district’s Bindki on Tuesday, a day before he was to get married, The Indian Express reported.

The 35-year-old’s family alleged that he was threatened with dismissal for not completing his work as a supervisor of the revision exercise, the newspaper reported. The police have filed a first information report against senior officials on the charge of abetment to suicide.

His family said that Sudhir had secured the Lekhpal job in 2024 after years of struggle and was still on probation.

On Wednesday, the Lekhpal Association called for a boycott of work related to the voter roll revision from Thursday unless action was taken against those responsible for Kumar’s death, the newspaper reported.

Hemant Kumar Mishra, the station house officer of the Bindki police station, told The Indian Express that a case had been filed against the revenue officer and unnamed officials.

Ravendra, the district secretary of the Lekhpal Association, told the newspaper that the electoral registration officer organised a meeting on Sunday and all persons involved in the exercise were told to attend.

Kumar was unable to attend the meeting as he was busy with his wedding preparations. Ravendra alleged that the electoral registration officer said during the meeting that he was recommending Kumar’s suspension, The Indian Express reported.

Kumar’s sister told the police that he had been upset since Sunday after hearing about this.

On Tuesday morning, a revenue officer, who has been booked in the matter, allegedly told Kumar that he must complete his work before the deadline or that he would be suspended as the senior officers had instructed.

The revenue officer repeatedly threatened Kumar after the 35-year-old said that he was busy with his wedding preparation and that he would complete the work after the rituals were over, his sister was quoted as having alleged.

Bareilly

Primary school teacher Sarvesh Kumar Gangwar on Wednesday collapsed while on duty at his school in Bareilly district’s Pardholi village, The Indian Express reported. He was taken to hospital where the doctors declared him dead. He was a resident of Karmachari Nagar.

His family alleged that the 47-year-old, working as a booth-level officer, “was under immense [work] pressure” because of the voter list revision exercise, the newspaper reported.

His elder brother Yogesh Gangwar said that Sarvesh Kumar Gangwar had told him on Tuesday that “he was stressed due to the BLO duty”. Yogesh Gangwar is also a teacher and deployed as a supervisor in the revision exercise.

The newspaper quoted Pramod Kumar, the sub-divisional magistrate (Sadar), as saying that there has been no excessive pressure on the booth-level officers. “…As far as work pressure is concerned, this is not the case,” he was quoted as saying.

BLO suicides

The draft electoral rolls in the 12 states and Union Territories will be published on December 9. Voters can file claims and objections between December 9 and January 8, and hearings will be held until January 31. The final electoral rolls are to be published on February 7.

The task of preparing voter lists before elections is typically assigned to primary school teachers and anganwadi or health care workers, who are employed by state governments. They are required to go door-to-door and check the identities of new voters and verify the details of those who have died or permanently moved out of an area.

In the commission’s parlance, they are called booth-level officers. Each booth level officer is responsible for maintaining the voter list for one polling booth, which can sometimes have as many as 1,500 registered voters.

Besides Uttar Pradesh, several suspected suicides during the revision process have been reported in West Bengal, Kerala and Rajasthan.

More than 60 booth-level officers and seven supervisors were booked in Noida for allegedly failing to comply with orders from senior officials during the revision process, reports said on Monday.

In Bahraich district, the administration has ordered FIRs against five booth-level officers, withheld salaries of 42 personnel and suspended a village-level revenue officer for alleged negligence.

In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published on September 30.

Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll. Several petitioners also moved the Supreme Court against it.

The Assam Cabinet on Wednesday cleared the Group of Ministers report that recommends granting Scheduled Tribe status to six communities in the state.

The report recommends including the six communities – Tai Ahom, Chutia, Moran, Motok, Koch-Rajbongshi and Tea Tribes (Adivasis) – in the Scheduled Tribes list.

It will be tabled in the Assembly during the ongoing Winter Session before being sent to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for consideration.

The communities are currently part of Assam’s Other Backward Classes list and comprise about 27% of the state’s population, according to The Indian Express.

The demand to be included in the Scheduled Tribes list increased in recent weeks ahead of the Assembly elections. The polls are expected to take place in the state in the first half of 2026.

There have also been counter-protests by communities that are already part of the Scheduled Tribes list.

The protesters have alleged that the decision to expand the Scheduled Tribes list is “politically motivated” in view of the state polls. They have also argued that adding more communities to the Scheduled Tribes list would hurt the rights of the tribes already on the list.

Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, a bill proposing to include the six groups in Assam’s Scheduled Tribes list was introduced in the Rajya Sabha. However, it was not taken up for discussion or passed. The Group of Ministers was constituted based on the directions by the Union home ministry that year.

Ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised the six communities that they would be granted the Scheduled Tribes status.

Following the delimitation exercise of 2023-’24, the number of seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes in the 126-member Assam Assembly increased from 16 to 19. Delimitation is the process of fixing boundaries of territorial constituencies.

Also read: BJP claims to protect ‘indigenous’ groups in Assam. But they are protesting against its government

The Punjab government has declined to grant temporary parole to jailed MP Amritpal Singh for attending the Winter Session of Parliament, which starts on December 1, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.

Singh, who won the general election in June 2024 from Punjab’s Khadoor Sahib as an independent candidate, is lodged in Assam’s Dibrugarh jail under the National Security Act. He is the leader of the Khalistan separatist organisation Waris Punjab De.

Khalistan is an independent Sikh nation sought by some groups.

On November 21, the Punjab and Haryana High Court disposed of Singh’s plea seeking parole and directed the state government to decide on the matter within one week, Live Law reported.

Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Dalwinderjit Singh rejected the parole request, citing potential law and order issues based on a report from the district police, Hindustan Times reported, quoting an unidentified official.

This is the second time the Punjab government has declined to grant parole to the MP. Although he was allowed four days’ parole in July 2024 to take oath as an MP, Amritpal Singh has not attended any parliamentary session since his election.

The legislator had gone on a hunger strike on January 31 to demand his right to represent his constituency in Parliament.

On November 10, the Supreme Court refused to hear Singh’s plea challenging his detention and instead directed him to approach the Punjab and Haryana High Court. It also asked the High Court to decide the matter within six weeks.

The National Security Act allows the Centre or state government to order the detention of a person “with a view to preventing him from acting in any manner prejudicial to the defence of India, the relations with foreign powers, or the security of India”.

It may also order detention to prevent them from acting in any manner prejudicial “to the security of the State”, the “maintenance of public order” or the “maintenance of supplies and services essential to the community”. The police and district magistrates have the power to issue detention orders, subject to approval by the state government within 12 days.

Singh was arrested on April 23, 2023, in Punjab’s Moga after he had been on the run for more than a month. He was flown to Assam on a special flight and sent to the Dibrugarh Central Jail.

The Punjab Police began cracking down on members of Waris Punjab De days after Singh and his supporters stormed a police station in Amritsar on February 23, 2023. This came after one of Singh’s aides was arrested for alleged assault and attempted kidnapping.

India on Wednesday rejected Pakistan’s remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi hoisting a flag at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, saying that Islamabad has “no moral standing” to comment on the matter.

Ministry of External Affairs Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that New Delhi rejected the remarks “with the contempt they deserve”.

Modi on Tuesday hoisted a saffron flag at the temple, marking the completion of its construction.

On the same day, Islamabad said it had noted the development with “deep concern”, adding that the structure was constructed on the site where the Babri mosque stood.

The mosque was demolished on December 6, 1992, by Hindu extremists because they believed that it stood on the spot on which the deity Ram had been born.

In 2019, the Supreme Court held that the demolition of the Babri mosque was illegal, but handed over the land to a trust for a Ram temple to be constructed. At the same time, it directed that a five-acre plot in Ayodhya be allotted to Muslims for a mosque to be constructed.

In January 2024, the temple was inaugurated in a ceremony led by Modi.

On Tuesday, Pakistan claimed that this reflected “deliberate attempts at eroding Muslim cultural and religious heritage under the influence of majoritarian Hindutva ideology”.

The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement that it was urging New Delhi to “uphold its responsibilities” by ensuring the security of all religious communities and “by protecting their places of worship in accordance with international human rights obligations”.

Responding to the statement, Jaiswal on Wednesday said that Pakistan, with its “deeply stained record of bigotry, repression and systemic mistreatment of its minorities”, is in no position to lecture others.

“Rather than delivering hypocritical homilies, Pakistan would do better to turn its gaze inwards and focus on its own abysmal human rights records,” he added.

The Commission for Air Quality Management on Wednesday lifted Stage 3 restrictions in the Delhi-National Capital Territory Region under the Graded Response Action Plan, citing improved air quality.

In its statement, the commission noted that Delhi’s Air Quality Index stood at 327, placing it in the “very poor” category. Stage 3 had been imposed on November 11 after the air quality had plummeted to the “severe” level.

The order on Wednesday means that the 50% work-from-home system in offices and hybrid classes in schools have been discontinued, Delhi Environment Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said.

However, restrictions under the first and second stages of the Graded Response Action Plan remain in force.

The second stage of the plan, which is invoked when the AQI crosses the 300 mark, involves a ban on the use of coal and firewood, including tandoors in hotels, restaurants and open eateries. It includes a ban on the use of diesel generator sets, except for emergency and essential services.

It also comprises measures such as the mechanical sweeping of roads and sprinkling water on them to keep the dust from rising, and intensified inspections for strict dust control measures at construction and demolition sites.

The curbs under Stage 2 also include the restrictions in place under the first stage, which was imposed on October 14.

GRAP is a set of incremental anti-pollution measures that are triggered to prevent further worsening of air quality once it reaches a certain threshold in Delhi and the adjoining areas comprising the National Capital Region.

On Wednesday, air quality readings in NCR on Wednesday remained in the “very poor” category, showed the Sameer application, which provides hourly updates published by the Central Pollution Control Board, at 7.06 pm.

Noida reported an AQI of 348, Greater Noida 324 and Ghaziabad 334.

In Haryana, Gurugram logged an AQI of 272, placing it in the “poor” category, while Faridabad recorded 208.

Air quality deteriorates sharply in the winter months in Delhi, which is often ranked the world’s most polluted capital.

Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, along with the lighting of firecrackers during Diwali, vehicular pollution, falling temperatures, decreased wind speeds and emissions from industries and coal-fired plants contribute to the problem.

Also read: Why air quality numbers in Delhi vary widely

The Election Commission on Wednesday wrote to Kolkata Police Commissioner Manoj Kumar Verma, alleging a “serious security breach” during a protest by booth-level officers at the office of the chief electoral officer on Monday, ANI reported.

The commission has sought an action-taken report within 48 hours.

The poll body’s letter came after a demonstration by the BLO Adhikar Raksha Committee, which gathered outside the chief electoral officer’s office to protest excessive work pressure during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, The Indian Express reported.

The protest began as a rally but escalated when some members stayed overnight inside the official premises, insisting on meeting Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Agarwal, the newspaper reported.

The special intensive revision of voter rolls is underway in 12 states and Union Territories, including West Bengal. Booth-level officers began distributing enumeration forms on November 4.

Assembly polls are expected to take place in West Bengal in the first half of 2026.

Five suicides by booth-level officers have been reported across the country during the current revision exercise.

On November 22, a booth-level officer was found hanging in her home in Krishnanagar in Nadia district. On November 19, another BLO was found hanging outside her home in Jalpaiguri. Families of both women alleged that they had been under severe pressure because of the revision workload.

Election Commission of India writes to Kolkata Police Commissioner regarding security and safety of its officers and staff in West Bengal.

"It has come to the notice of ECI that on 24.11.2025 a serious security breach has occurred at the office of the Chief Electoral Officer,… pic.twitter.com/8kkbavil5Y

— ANI (@ANI) November 26, 2025

The poll body’s letter to the police said that the security arrangements at the chief electoral officer’s office appeared “inadequate” to manage the situation, posing a potential threat to Agarwal and other officials.

The commission also directed the police to ensure the safety of officers posted there, including protection at their homes and during their commutes.

It also instructed that “adequate security classification” be undertaken in view of the sensitivity of the special revision and the upcoming elections to prevent any further incidents.

Copies of the letter were sent to the chief secretary, home secretary, director general of police and the CEO.

The Election Commission on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that political parties are creating “a scare” about the special intensive revision of voter lists underway in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, among other states, Bar and Bench reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi was hearing pleas against the validity of the exercise. The court will hear Tamil Nadu’s petition on December 4 and that of West Bengal on December 9.

On the Kerala government’s plea to defer the process, the bench asked the poll panel and the state election commission to file its response by December 1. The matter will be heard on December 2.

The Kerala government has sought to postpone the revision of voter rolls in the state until after local body elections in December. The state government said that revising the voter lists and conducting the polls simultaneously will lead to an “administrative impasse” and disrupt the elections.

However, on Wednesday, the Election Commission told the court that 99% of the voters in Kerala had been given enumeration forms and 50% of them had been digitised, Live Law reported.

The poll panel contended that there was no need to defer the exercise because of the local body polls. The Election Commission said that it and the state poll panel were “not finding it difficult”, Live Law reported.

On November 14, the Kerala High Court refused to defer the process in the state.

The revision exercise is underway in 12 states and Union Territories. Booth-level officers began distributing enumeration forms on November 4.

Besides Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, the voter rolls are being revised in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Lakshadweep, Madhya Pradesh, Puducherry, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

A “special revision” of the voter list, which is similar to the usual updates to the electoral roll, will take place in Assam separately.

Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Puducherry and Assam are expected to head for Assembly elections in the first half of 2026.

The draft electoral rolls in the 12 states and Union Territories will be published on December 9. Voters can file claims and objections between December 9 and January 8, and hearings will be held until January 31. The final electoral rolls are to be published on February 7.

In Bihar, where the revision was completed ahead of the Assembly polls in November, at least 47 lakh voters were excluded from the final electoral roll published on September 30.

Concerns had been raised after the announcement in Bihar that the exercise could remove eligible voters from the roll. Several petitioners also moved the Supreme Court against it.

Tamil Nadu’s ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had moved the Supreme Court on November 3 against the voter list revision in the state, describing it as a “constitutional overreach”.

Also read: ‘In Bengal, SIR is NRC’: Why revision of the electoral roll has spread panic in the state

The National Investigation Agency has arrested a man for allegedly harbouring and providing logistical support to Umar Nabi, the doctor who is believed to have been driving the car that exploded in Delhi on November 10. The agency identified the seventh person arrested in the case as Soyab from Dhauj in Haryana’s Faridabad.

The blast near the Red Fort metro station left 13 persons dead. Two days after the explosion, the Union government described it as a “terrorist incident”.

The NIA has said that it is pursuing several leads in connection with the “suicide bombing”, and has been conducting searches across states in coordination with the police forces to identify and track others involved in the attack. Read on.

The Election Commission has told the Supreme Court that there is no need to defer the special intensive revision of the voter rolls underway in Kerala because of the local body polls in the state. The bench was hearing several petitions filed against the validity of the exercise.

The poll panel also said that political parties were creating “a scare” about the exercise in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, among other states. The court will hear Tamil Nadu’s petition on December 4 and that of West Bengal on December 9

The Kerala government has sought to postpone the revision of voter rolls in the state until after local body elections in December. The state government said that revising the voter lists and conducting the polls simultaneously will lead to an “administrative impasse” and disrupt the elections.

However, on Wednesday, the Election Commission told the court that 99% of the voters in Kerala had been given enumeration forms and 50% of them had been digitised. Read on.

Student protests in the wake of a jaundice outbreak at Vellore Institute of Technology in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal turned violent. This came after about 24 students had fallen ill with symptoms of the disease in recent weeks, police officers said.

Several students alleged poor hygiene conditions and contaminated water in the hostels. They added that repeated complaints to university officials about the food and water quality were ignored.

On Tuesday, protests against the situation escalated into violence after faculty members allegedly assaulted students, prompting larger groups to gather across the campus. By midnight, students allegedly set several vehicles on fire and damaged parts of the chancellor’s bungalow.

Superintendent of Police Deepak Shukla on Wednesday said that the situation on campus was normal. He added that the university would remain closed till Sunday for safety reasons. Read on.

Forty-one Maoists, including 32 carrying a collective reward of Rs 1.19 crore, have surrendered before the police in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district. The group, which included 12 women, laid down arms before senior police officers, Bijapur Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar Yadav said.

Thirty-nine of the 41 cadres were allegedly part of the Maoists’ south sub-zonal bureau. Under the state’s rehabilitation policy, each of those who surrendered received Rs 50,000 in immediate financial assistance.

With Wednesday’s surrenders, 790 Maoist cadres have surrendered in Bijapur since January 2024, Yadav said. In the same period, 202 Maoists have been killed in gunfights and 1,031 arrested in the district, he added.

Across Chhattisgarh, more than 2,200 Maoists have surrendered in the past 23 months, officials said.

The Union government has repeatedly vowed to end Maoism by March 31, 2026. Read on.

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The Kerala High Court has held that a Muslim man cannot claim that he has no means to maintain his first wife by pointing towards his obligations towards his second wife, Live Law reported on Wednesday.

Justice Kauser Edappagath made the observation while delivering a verdict on revision petitions filed by the man against an order issued by a family court, which had granted maintenance to his first wife.

In the High Court, the counsel representing the husband submitted that he did not have a job and had no means to provide maintenance to the first wife, who ran a beauty parlour and earned her own livelihood, Live Law reported.

The counsel added that his first wife had left him without any sufficient reason in 2015 and was therefore not entitled to maintenance under Section 125(4) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which outlines this provision.

The High Court was also told that he could not provide maintenance to the first wife as he had to maintain his second wife.

The counsel also argued that since their son was already providing maintenance to the first wife, her claim for maintenance from the husband was not legally sustainable.

In its judgement, the High Court observed that a Muslim husband did not have a vested right to have more than one wife. It added that monogamy was the rule and polygamy, or the practice of having more than one wife, was an exception under Muslim law, Live Law reported.

“Polygamy for men is allowed under Muslim law only in exceptional and extraordinary circumstances, that too, under the strict injunction that all the wives must be treated equally and equitably,” Live Law quoted the judge as saying.

The foundation of polygamy in Muslim Law, as per the Quran, states that the husband must be able to deal justly with all wives, the High Court said. This term implies not only equality in love and affection but also equality in maintenance, it added.

“Therefore, a Muslim husband who contracted a second marriage during the subsistence of his first marriage cannot contend that he has no means to maintain his first wife,” Live Law quoted the judge as observing.

That a husband has a second wife does not mean that he can deny maintenance to his first wife or reduce its quantum, the High Court said.

The judgement also stated that a wife’s right to claim maintenance from a husband under sections of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita was independent of the obligation of her son or daughter to maintain her.

The High Court also said that the decision of the first wife to live separately from her husband was based on valid grounds. “The second marriage of a Muslim husband without the consent of his first wife is a sufficient reason for the latter to live separately from the former,” Live Law quoted the High Court as stating.

Forty-one Maoists, including 32 carrying a collective reward of Rs 1.19 crore, surrendered before the police in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district on Wednesday, PTI reported.

The group, which included 12 women, laid down arms before senior police officers, PTI quoted Bijapur Superintendent of Police Jitendra Kumar Yadav as saying.

Thirty-nine of the 41 cadres were allegedly part of the Maoists’ south sub-zonal bureau. They were associated with the Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee, the Telangana State Committee and the Dhamtari-Gariaband-Nuapada divisions of the banned outfit, officials said.

Under the state’s rehabilitation policy, each of those who surrendered received Rs 50,000 in immediate financial assistance.

Those who surrendered included Pandru Hapka alias Mohan (37), Bandi Hapka (35), Lakkhu Korsa (37), Badru Punem (35), Sukhram Hemla (27), Manjula Hemla (25), Mangali Madvi alias Shanti (29), Jairam Kadiyam (28) and Pando Madkam alias Chandni (35), all of whom carried rewards of Rs 8 lakh each.

Three cadres carried bounties of Rs 5 lakh, 12 carried Rs 2 lakh and eight carried Rs 1 lakh, PTI reported.

With Wednesday’s surrenders, 790 Maoist cadres have surrendered in Bijapur since January 2024, Yadav told PTI.

In the same period, 202 Maoists have been killed in gunfights and 1,031 arrested in the district, the police official added.

Across Chhattisgarh, more than 2,200 Maoists have surrendered in the past 23 months, PTI quoted unidentified officials as saying.

On October 14, 210 Maoists, including a central committee member of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) surrendered in Chhattisgarh’s Jagdalpur.

The Union government has repeatedly vowed to end Maoism by March 31, 2026.

On October 12, the Union home ministry said that the number of districts affected by “Left-wing extremism” has come down to 11 from 18 in March.

In 2025, the number of “most affected” districts has also come down from six to three, it added. These are Bijapur, Sukma and Narayanpur in Chhattisgarh.

On October 13, the Chhattisgarh chief minister said that over the past 22 months, 477 suspected Maoists were killed, 2,110 had surrendered and 1,785 had been arrested in the state.

In 2024 alone, 217 suspected Maoists were killed by security forces across Chhattisgarh.

Malini Subramaniam has reported for Scroll that while many of those killed in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region in 2024 were declared by the police to be reward-carrying Maoists, several families dispute the claim. The families claim that the persons killed were civilians.

Also read:

• Skill training for surrendered Maoists or forced detention by Chhattisgarh police?

• Rs 5 crore bounty: Are rewards making anti-Maoist operations more deadly?

The National Human Rights Commission has sought the Railways’ response to a complaint about the use of only halal-certified meat in non-vegetarian dishes served in trains, Bar and Bench reported on Wednesday.

A bench presided by NHRC member Priyank Kanoongo claimed that only using halal meat prima facie amounted to a violation of human rights, adding that this also affected the livelihoods of Scheduled Caste Hindu communities and other non-Muslims who worked in the meat trade.

Halal is an Arabic term that means “lawful”. In the dietary context, where it is most commonly used, it refers to food that is permissible according to Islamic regulations.

The Railways ought to respect the food choices of persons belonging to all religions as per the secular spirit of the Constitution, the commission added.

The notice was issued on a complaint claiming that the use of halal meat exclusively on trains created an unfair discrimination against Scheduled Caste Hindu communities who traditionally worked in the meat trade, Bar and Bench reported.

Hindu and Sikh passengers also do not get food options that match their religious beliefs, which violated their rights to equality, non-discrimination, freedom of profession, right to life with dignity and religious freedom under the Constitution, the complaint alleged.

Subsequently, the NHRC took cognisance of the matter under Section 12 of the 1993 Protection of Human Rights Act, which outlines its functions. The commission also sought an Action Taken Report within two weeks.

Student protests in the wake of a jaundice outbreak at Vellore Institute of Technology in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal turned violent late on Tuesday, with several vehicles set ablaze and property damaged, The Indian Express reported.

The protests had erupted in the university campus in Sehore district after around 24 students have fallen ill with symptoms of the disease in recent weeks, the newspaper quoted unidentified police officers as saying.

Several students alleged poor hygiene conditions and contaminated water in the hostels. They added that repeated complaints to university officials about the food and water quality were ignored.

“Many students also said they had to buy bottled mineral water due to unsafe drinking water at the campus,” The Indian Express quoted an unidentified student as saying. Others alleged “mistreatment by staff and guards whenever they raised these issues, including threats and physical assaults aimed at silencing them”.

On Tuesday, protests against the situation turned violent after faculty members allegedly assaulted students, prompting larger groups to gather across the campus, The Times of India reported.

By midnight, students allegedly set several vehicles on fire, the newspaper quoted unidentified sources as saying. They also damaged parts of the chancellor’s bungalow.

Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT bhopal) में रात्रि को 2 बजे
हजारों छात्र सड़कों पर है सरकार तुरंत संज्ञान.. vit को बंद करें हजारों लोगों को एडमिशन दे दिए व्यवस्था पानी के पीने तक कि नहीं #VITBhopal@DrMohanYadav51 @Indersinghsjp pic.twitter.com/kVOElTdT4V

— Shivam Jaat (@ShivamJ29869419) November 26, 2025

On Wednesday, Superintendent of Police Deepak Shukla told The Indian Express that the situation on campus was normal. He added that the university would remain closed till Sunday for safety reasons.

“A list of sick students in the hostel is being compiled and steps will be taken to resolve their problems by receiving their applications,” the newspaper quoted the police officer as saying.

The registrar of the university, KK Nair, on Wednesday also released a statement denying reports alleging deaths linked to the jaundice outbreak on campus, describing the claims as “entirely baseless”.

“There are a few cases of jaundice reported in the university and they were given proper medical care,” he said, adding that the situation was “not alarming”. Nair also said that university authorities had conducted multiple tests on the water sources on campus and found them to be safe.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday reiterated her claim that the Union government’s real intention behind the special intensive revision of electoral rolls was to create a National Register of Citizens, PTI reported.

The National Register of Citizens is a proposed exercise to create a list of Indian citizens and to identify undocumented immigrants.

The register was updated in Assam in 2019, after a mammoth scrutiny of ancestral family documents to weed out “illegal immigrants”, and ended up excluding 19 lakh residents of the state. The updated list, however, has not been notified six years on.

The special intensive revision of voter rolls is underway in 12 states and Union Territories, including West Bengal. Booth-level officers began distributing enumeration forms on November 4.

Assembly polls are expected to take place in West Bengal in the first half of 2026.

The draft electoral rolls will be published on December 9. Voters can file claims and objections between December 9 and January 8, and hearings will be held until January 31. The final electoral rolls are to be published on February 7.

On Wednesday, speaking to reporters in Kolkata on Constitution Day, Banerjee said that people’s citizenship was being questioned decades after Independence.

Earlier in the day, Banerjee said on social media that when democracy is at stake, secularism is in an “endangered situation”, and when federalism is “being bulldozed”, people must protect the valuable guidance that the Constitution provides.

On October 28, after a 57-year-old man in West Bengal died by suicide, purportedly leaving behind a note saying blaming the NRC for his death, Banerjee had said that the state would never allow the exercise and would not permit anyone “to strip our people of their dignity or belonging”.

On November 21, Banerjee urged the Election Commission to suspend the special intensive revision of the voter list in the state, saying that the “human cost of this mismanagement” had become unbearable.

In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, Banerjee said that the process had reached an “alarming” and “dangerous” stage, emphasising that the manner in which it was being carried out was unplanned, chaotic, and putting citizens and officials at risk.

The chief minister’s appeal followed her earlier request to suspend the exercise after booth-level officers in the state died by suicide allegedly due to work pressure.

Also read: ‘In Bengal, SIR is NRC’: Why revision of the electoral roll has spread panic in the state

The National Investigation Agency on Wednesday said it has arrested a man for allegedly harbouring and providing logistical support to Umar Nabi, the doctor who is believed to have been driving the car that exploded in Delhi on November 10.

The agency identified the seventh person arrested in the case as Soyab from Dhauj in Haryana’s Faridabad. Apart from harbouring Nabi before the blast, Soyab also provided logistical support to him, the NIA claimed.

The blast near the Red Fort metro station left 13 persons dead. Two days after the explosion, the Union government described it as a “terrorist incident”.

On November 16, the agency arrested an aide allegedly linked to Nabi, who was identified as Amir Rashid Ali. The NIA alleged that the Hyundai i20 car used in the blast was registered in Ali’s name. This was the first arrest in the case.

A day later, the NIA arrested another alleged associate of the doctor, Jasir Bilal Wani alias Danish, from Srinagar. Wani is a resident of Qazigund in Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag.

On November 20, four more persons were arrested. They were identified as Muzammil Shakeel Ganai from Pulwama, Adeel Ahmed Rather from Anantnag, Mufti Irfan Ahmad Wagay from Shopian and Shaheen Saeed from Uttar Pradesh’s Lucknow.

The NIA said on Wednesday said that it was pursuing several leads in connection with the “suicide bombing”, and has been conducting searches across states in coordination with the police forces to identify and track others involved in the attack.

“Efforts to unravel the entire conspiracy behind the deadly terror attack are continuing,” it added.

Hours before the blast, the police said that it had cracked an “inter-state and transnational terror module” in Faridabad and Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur. Two doctors from Kashmir – Adeel Ahmad Rather and Muzamil Shakeel – were among those arrested in the alleged case.

The police said at the time that it had recovered 2,900 kg of improvised explosive device-making material in raids in several states.

In the backdrop of the blast and the terror module case, the Jammu and Kashmir Police on November 12 conducted raids at more than 300 locations in the Kashmir valley allegedly linked to persons affiliated with the banned Jamaat-e-Islami.

The actions came after intelligence that elements linked to the Jamaat-e-Islami, banned under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, were trying to revive the organisation under different names, the police said.

Also read: How a Kashmir probe into Jaish posters nearly unmasked Delhi blast plot

Union minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar on Tuesday offered Rs 10 lakh in funding for villages in his Karimnagar Lok Sabha constituency if they unanimously elect sarpanch candidates backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Telangana panchayat elections.

Kumar said that as an MP, he has the funds available to him under the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme. Under the scheme, each MP is entitled to recommend projects worth Rs 5 crore per year based on the needs of the constituency.

“You already know how we have brought in crores [of rupees] through CSR [Corporate Social Responsibility] and invested them in improving education and healthcare,” he said on social media. “As a Union minister, I will secure even more central funds to strengthen panchayat development.”

The BJP leader added: “I will directly fund Rs 10 lakh for that village’s development - no delays, no excuses.”

The polls will take place in mid-December.

The Union minister of state for home affairs said that the previous Bharat Rashtra Samithi government in Telangana had promised Rs 5 lakh to “unanimous panchayats”.

“Trusting that, nearly 70 villages in the Karimnagar Parliament area elected BRS candidates unanimously,” he said. “Even after five years, not a single rupee was released by the KCR [K Chandrashekar Rao] government.”

The Congress government in the state also made similar promises and “cheated people in the name of unanimous elections”, the former BJP state chief said.

“Those who trusted Congress and BRS ended up suffering financially,” he said, adding that “both parties are now preparing to repeat the same deception”.

Kumar said that only the BJP “brings real funds”, and that if candidates backed by the Congress or the BRS win, “new funds will not come, and even central funds may get diverted”.

“Don’t fall for their tricks. Don’t fall for their inducements,” he added.

The comment by Kumar came days after Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar on Friday told voters in Malegaon that development funds for the region would be assured only if they elected candidates from his faction of the Nationalist Congress Party in the December 2 local body elections.

“I will ensure there is no shortage of funds if you elect all 18 NCP candidates,” he was quoted as saying. “If you elect all 18 candidates, I am committed to give whatever I have promised. But if you reject, I will also reject. You have votes, I have funds.”

Pawar, the finance minister in the BJP-led Mahayuti coalition government, defended his comments on Sunday.

The Opposition in Maharashtra accused Pawar of threatening voters, stating that public funds come from taxpayers and “not from Ajit Pawar’s house”.

The Maharashtra Chief Electoral Office had in April 2024 ordered a probe after Pawar had said in Baramati that development funds would be released only if voters backed the Mahayuti in the Lok Sabha elections.

The Calcutta High Court has held the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the state authorities responsible for serious lapses that led to the deaths of four labourers and injuries to three while cleaning a sewer line in Kolkata in February 2021, Live Law reported.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sujoy Paul and Justice Chaitali Chatterjee Das directed that Rs 30 lakh be paid to each of the dead workers’ family, in line with a Supreme Court ruling on compensation for manual scavenging deaths. The Rs 10 lakh paid earlier will be deducted from the amount.

The authorities were directed to pay the amount within three months, the legal news outlet reported.

The order passed on Friday also directed Rs 5 lakh as compensation within two months for the workers who were injured.

“Manual scavenging is a grave, human right, concern and its persistence is a blot on the nation’s conscience,” The Indian Express quoted the order as saying.

The court observed that mandatory monitoring mechanisms under the 2013 Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers Act had not been shown to exist, Live Law reported.

It also criticised an affidavit from the police referring only to a first information report against unidentified persons as inadequate.

The court directed the deputy commissioner of police to file a report on the incident and asked the West Bengal government to constitute a monitoring committee within one month.

The State Legal Services Authority was instructed to contact the affected families to ensure compensation is disbursed, Live Law reported.

The four workers, all from the state’s Malda district, were employed under the Kolkata Environment Infrastructure Improvement Project, a contractor hired by the municipal corporation, and were desilting sewers when the accident occurred.

They died or were injured after inhaling toxic fumes in the sewer.

The deceased were identified as 19-year-old Sabir Hossain, 35-year-old Mohammad Alamgir, 22-year-old Jahangir Alam and 20-year-old Liyakat Ali, The Hindu reported.

Manual scavenging, which is the practice of removing human excreta by hand from sewer lines or septic tanks, is banned under the 2013 Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and their Rehabilitation Act.

However, the practice remains prevalent in several parts of the country.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday verbally observed that the Union government should bring back, as an interim measure, residents of West Bengal who have been deported to Bangladesh on suspicion of being foreigners, Live Law reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said that the persons, who say that they are Indian citizens, have a right to plead their case before the authorities with documents.

The court said that the Union government should bring them back temporarily so that the deportees can be heard and agencies can verify the authenticity of their documents.

Kant said that while deporting an “illegal entrant” from Bangladesh is justified, “if somebody has something to show you, that wait I belong to India, I am born and brought up here, and I am actually an Indian national, he has a right to plead before you”, Live Law reported.

The bench gave the counsel representing the Union government time till December 1 to get instructions from the Centre on the matter.

Advocate Sanjay Hegde, representing the petitioners, informed the court that the Union government had challenged an order by the Calcutta High Court that had directed the repatriation of the deportees.

He alleged that the Union government only acted in the matter after the petitioners moved the High Court alleging contempt, Live Law reported.

The case

The Union government had moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court order that directed it to bring back two migrant worker families from West Bengal’s Birbhum district who had been pushed into Bangladesh and accused of being undocumented immigrants.

The High Court had on September 26 set aside the deportation order against six persons, including eight-month pregnant Sunali Khatun. It had directed that they be brought back to West Bengal within four weeks.

Two days before the four-week period ended on October 24, the Union government filed its petition amid reports that the families of the deported persons were planning to move the High Court for directions to ensure compliance with its repatriation order.

The Union government and the Delhi Police have questioned whether the High Court had the jurisdiction to hear the case.

Since May, thousands of Bengali-speaking migrant workers have been rounded up in states ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party and asked to prove that they were Indian citizens – and not undocumented immigrants.

In several cases, workers have been declared foreigners within days and forced into Bangladesh, despite being Indian citizens.

Also read:

• Bangladeshi or Indian? Investigating Modi government’s crackdown on ‘illegal immigrants’
• Pregnant woman from Bengal forced into Bangladesh. Family has land records from five generations ago

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday stated that he had “full confidence in India’s security under Prime Minister Narendra Modi” after media reports claimed that his visit to India had been deferred due to security concerns following the November 10 car blast near Delhi’s Red Fort.

Netanyahu was expected to visit India before the end of the year, according to Israeli outlet i24 News Hebrew.

On Tuesday, Netanyahu’s office confirmed that discussions are underway to set a new date for the visit.

“Israel’s bond with India and between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi is very strong,” stated the office.

Netanyahu last visited India in January 2018 for six days, which was six months after Modi had visited Tel Aviv in July 2017.

After the explosion near the Red Fort, Netanyahu had expressed condolences and said “terror may strike our cities, but it will never shake our souls”.

The blast near the Red Fort metro station on November 10 had left 13 persons dead. A doctor named Umar Nabi was believed to have been driving the car that exploded. The Union government has described it as a “terrorist incident”.

In 2022, a woman in Karnataka approached the High Court with evidence that her husband had “treated her as a sex slave”, subjecting her to repeated sexual assault throughout their marriage.

The court observed that “rape is rape, be it by a man or a husband”. But it was unable to proceed with prosecuting the action under Section 375 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises nonconsensual sexual intercourse and penetration.

This is because Exception 2 of this section carves out a sweeping exemption: sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, if she is above 18, is not rape.

The Karnataka case was not an isolated one. According to the National Family Health Survey 5, one in 18 women in India who has ever been married reports sexual violence by a husband.

But this number tells only part of the story. The untold part reveals how this legal exemption does not just deny justice – it erases the crime itself from our ability to measure, name and address it.

India is among the 108 countries worldwide that still refuse to explicitly criminalise marital rape, even as more nations join the 77 that have already done so.

Exception 2 has been retained in the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which replaced the Indian Penal Code in 2023. (Exception 1 says that medical interventions do not constitute rape.)

The history of this exemption is a study in contradiction. In 2000, The Law Commission rejected the suggestion that it be deleted, warning against “excessive interference with the institution of marriage”. But in 2013, the Justice Verma Committee, formed after national outrage over the Delhi gang rape, categorically urged it to be removed, arguing that marriage cannot justify non-consensual sex.

Despite this recommendation, every legislative attempt since to do so has failed. The government has asserted that marital rape “cannot be applied in the Indian context” due to the sacred status of marriage.

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act does recognise marital rape – but only as domestic violence. The law offers civil remedies rather than criminal prosecution. A woman can seek protection orders, maintenance, even judicial separation. But her husband faces no criminal record, no imprisonment under rape provisions.

The message is clear: the same act is a heinous crime outside marriage but merely a "domestic dispute" within it.

This creates a constitutional crisis. As legal scholar Sarthak Makkar argues, Exception 2 violates the guarantee of equality in Article 14 of the Constitution by creating two classes of women: those raped by their husbands, for whom the law offers no criminal remedy, and those raped by anyone else, who receive full legal protection against sexual violence.

The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that the freedom to make intimate choices lies at the heart of personal liberty. Yet, by presuming perpetual consent within marriage, Indian law denies married women the very autonomy that the Constitution protects.

Here is where legal exemption creates a vicious cycle. When law erases marital rape from the penal code, research loses the language to measure it.

Among women aged 18-49 who have been married, roughly 5% report sexual violence by a husband or partner. But the numbers fragment dramatically. While: only 5.6% of currently married women report sexual violence, nearly 30% of divorced or separated women do.

This is not because divorced women face more violence – it is because many women disclose such experiences only after leaving the marriage, when it is finally safe to speak about what happened to them.

Across socioeconomic groups, the pattern is consistent: reporting remains stubbornly low regardless of wealth, education or area of residence, ranging from 3% among the richest to 9% among the poorest.

These low numbers do not mean that marital rape is rare – they mean many women do not identify what is happening to them as rape. NFHS-5 shows that more than 20% of rural, poor and less-educated women believe a husband is justified in beating his wife if she refuses sex.

This creates a disturbing paradox: in communities where more women believe wife-beating for refusing sex is justified, fewer women disclose sexual violence when asked by survey interviewers.

The pattern is stark. Looking at the wealth quintiles, justification rates drop from 15.3% among the poorest to 7.9% among the richest, but the reporting of forced sex drops even more steeply, from 9.85% to just 3.08%.

The same pattern holds across education levels: as women gain more schooling, fewer justify violence (from 16.2% with no education to 6.6% with higher education), but reporting also falls (from 8.12% to 2.65%).

This inverse relationship reveals the measurement crisis: when justification is high and reporting is low in the same population, it suggests many women do not identify forced sex as violence. If a woman believes refusal to have sex with her husband deserves punishment, she may not interpret forced sex as abuse. She may call it “marital duty” or “tension” – anything but rape.

When coercion is normalised, it disappears from data. That is why the NFHS numbers only capture recognition of violence but not its actual scale. The survey's questions are also narrow, asking about "forced sex" but excluding oral or anal penetration, insertion of objects or coerced pornography, acts that would all constitute rape outside marriage.

The term “marital rape” appears only once in the entire 700-page NFHS-5 report. Even when data shows that 6% of women who have ever been married report forced sex by a husband, policymakers read it as “domestic violence”, not rape. The language shapes what we see.

Ground-level evidence tells a different story. A hospital-based study in Mumbai reviewed the counselling and medico-legal records of women seeking crisis support. Over half disclosed sexual violence by their husbands, including forced penetration, insertion of objects and behavior that impairs autonomous decision-making of a woman about her reproductive health. Yet barely 1% filed medico-legal complaints.

The contrast is staggering. When women feel safe in clinical settings, disclosures are made. But within the legal system, silence prevails. This reveals two linked failures: survivors make disclosures only when they feel safe and institutions rarely register complaints because marital rape is not a cognisable offence.

Survey figures understate the crisis not for lack of victims but because law, stigma and institutional design conspire to erase them.

The structural barriers run deeper. The NFHS interviews only one woman per household and skips the domestic violence module if privacy cannot be ensured. In India's patriarchal context, that guarantee is often impossible. In NFHS-5, about 4% of selected women were dropped from the module because privacy could not be guaranteed – thousands of potential disclosures that were never made.

The measurement gap also reflects an attitudinal gap. Cross-cultural studies find that people view the same act as less “deviant” when the perpetrator is a husband rather than a stranger, with men and Indian respondents especially prone to rationalising the offense.

India’s refusal to criminalise marital rape has created a self-reinforcing system: law does not recognise the harm, so surveys cannot measure it properly, so institutions do not record it and women shaped by culture and fear, do not report it. This manufactured invisibility then becomes evidence for inaction.

"Where's the data?" ask policymakers. The answer: you made it impossible to collect.

Reform requires breaking this cycle on several fronts. Legally, Exception 2 must be removed from the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita without carve-outs or dilutions. In measurement, national surveys must ask about specific acts rather than relying on women to label their experience as violence, following methodologies from countries that have successfully captured intimate partner sexual violence.

Culturally, we need public awareness campaigns that challenge the notion of sex as marital duty and affirm consent as fundamental to all relationships.

Several petitions challenging Exception 2 are currently before Indian courts. Public discourse on bodily autonomy and consent has never been stronger. On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25, Indians must recognise that violence doesn't become less real because it occurs within marriage – it becomes more dangerous, precisely because law and society refuse to see it.

The question is not whether marital rape exists. The question is how much longer we will build systems designed to make it invisible.

Gajendra Diwedi is a teaching fellow and Karan Babbar is an assistant professor at Plaksha University.

November 25 is International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inalienable part of India, stated the Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday after China reiterated its claim over the territory.

“Arunachal Pradesh is an integral and inalienable part of India, and this is a self-evident fact,” stated ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal. “No amount of denial by the Chinese side is going to change this indisputable reality.”

Beijing refers to Arunachal Pradesh as Zangnan. It lays territorial claims over a large portion of the state, claiming that it is “South Tibet”. India has repeatedly rejected the Chinese claims.

Earlier in the day, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning reiterated the claim that “Zangnan is China’s territory”, while answering a question about an Indian woman having been detained at the Shanghai airport for 18 hours on November 21.

Prema Thongdok had alleged that she was detained after the Chinese immigration authorities claimed that her passport was invalid because it showed her birthplace as Arunachal Pradesh.

“The Chinese side has never recognized the so-called ‘Arunachal Pradesh’ illegally set up by India,” stated the Chinese spokesperson.

She also denied that Thongdok was detained.

“On the individual case you mentioned, according to what we have learned, during the entire time, China’s border inspection authorities carried out checks procedures in accordance with laws and regulations,” stated the spokesperson.

She added that the authorities were “impartial and non-abusive” and that the rights of Thongdok were “fully protected”.

Responding to the statement, Jaiwsal said that the matter of Thongdok’s detention had been taken up “strongly with the Chinese side”.

“Chinese authorities have still not been able to explain their actions, which are in violation of several conventions governing international air travel,” said Jaiswal. “The actions by the Chinese authorities also violate their own regulations that allow visa free transit up to 24 hours for nationals of all countries.”

Thongdok, who has lived in the United Kingdom for 14 years, is a native of Rupa town in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng district.

She said that she was travelling from London to Japan and that her journey included a three-hour layover at the Shanghai Pudong airport.

The woman said that she was singled out during the security check for her Shanghai-Tokyo flight.

Thongdok said that the officials pointed to her passport, which showed Arunachal Pradesh as her birthplace.

“They were insisting that Arunachal Pradesh is a part of China, and that therefore my passport is not valid,” she said. “I asked them what laws state this or what written document specifies that such a passport is invalid.”

Thongdok alleged that the Chinese immigration officials mocked her, blocked her onward flight to Tokyo and left her without food. She eventually contacted a friend in the UK, who reached the Indian consulate in Shanghai, and diplomats arrived within an hour with food, she said.

However, the Indian officials could not convince Chinese immigration to allow her to continue to Japan, forcing her to book a flight to India via Thailand, she added.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday verbally said it would allow Maharashtra’s local body elections to go ahead, but made it clear that reservations cannot exceed the 50% ceiling in seats where polls are yet to be notified, The Indian Express reported.

A bench led by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant made the remarks while hearing petitions challenging the implementation of Other Backward Classes reservation in the state’s local bodies.

Chief Justice Surya Kant said that in the 57 local bodies where the reservation exceeds 50%, the elections will be subject to the outcome of the ongoing proceedings, The Indian Express reported. “Any further election which you notify must comply with the 50% ceiling,” Kant told the lawyer for the Maharashtra State Election Commission.

Advocate Balbir Singh, appearing for the commission, informed the court that elections to 246 Municipal Councils and 42 Nagar Panchayats are scheduled for December 2, with counting on December 3, the newspaper reported.

Elections to Zila Parishads, Municipal Corporations and Panchayat Samitis are yet to be notified.

The bench directed the commission to submit a list of the 57 local bodies where the reservation cap has been breached.

Local body elections in Maharashtra have been stalled since 2021 amid court proceedings about OBC reservation.

In December 2021, the Supreme Court stayed the quota, holding that it could be implemented only after the state satisfied the “triple-tests” requirement laid down in earlier judgments, Live Law reported.

This test requires state governments to establish a commission for empirical inquiry, determine proportional reservation based on findings and ensure that the total reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes does not exceed 50%.

The 50% ceiling was set by the Supreme Court in the 1992 Indra Sawhney vs Union Of India ruling.

To meet the “triple test” requirement, the state constituted the Jayant Kumar Banthia Commission in March 2022.

The commission recommended 27% OBC reservation but said it must remain within the overall 50% ceiling, Live Law reported.

As its report was challenged, the Supreme Court in August 2022 directed that the status quo be maintained.

On May 6, 2023, the court allowed elections to be held with OBC reservation restored to the percentage that existed before the Banthia Commission’s July 2022 report.

However, during last week’s hearing, the bench verbally observed that state authorities appeared to have misconstrued this order as permitting reservations to rise above 50%.

The court clarified that this was not the case and that the ceiling continues to apply.

The Chhattisgarh High Court has allowed a minor girl to terminate her 21-week pregnancy that resulted from rape.

In an order passed on November 24, Justice Parth Prateem Sahu said that preventing a rape survivor from ending an unwanted pregnancy would force her to carry it to its full term, which would violate her bodily integrity.

Such a situation would worsen her trauma and severely affect her physical and mental health, the court observed.

The judge held that the minor’s decision to end the pregnancy was her “personal choice” and a part of her right to personal liberty.

The order also observed that there was “no dispute that petitioner is victim of rape” besides being “desirous of terminating pregnancy as she does not want to give birth to the child of a rapist.”

A medical board from the district hospital examined the girl and concluded that she was physically and mentally fit for the procedure, the order said.

The board confirmed that the pregnancy was 21 weeks and 1 day old, which is within the legal limit of 24 weeks allowed for certain categories of women under Section 3 of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act.

Based on this report, the court permitted the termination under the provisions that allow abortion when the pregnancy exceeds 20 weeks but does not cross 24 weeks.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hoisted a saffron flag at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, marking the completion of its construction.

“Today, the entire India and the whole world are imbued with Ram,” The Indian Express quoted Modi as saying at the ceremony. “…Centuries-old wounds are being healed, centuries of torture are finding respite, and a centuries-old resolve is achieving fulfillment today.”

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath were also present at the ceremony, The Hindu reported. The RSS is the parent organisation of the ruling BJP.

The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992, by Hindu extremists who claimed that an ancient Ram temple stood on the site.

In 2019, a Supreme Court bench directed that the plot be allotted to a trust that would oversee the construction of a Ram temple, while a separate five-acre plot be allotted in Ayodhya to Muslims for constructing a mosque.

Over four years later, the Ram temple was inaugurated in Ayodhya in a ceremony led by Modi on January 22, 2024.

To witness the Dharma Dhwajarohan Utsav at Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Mandir is a moment crores of people in India and the world have waited for. History has been made in Ayodhya and this inspires us even more to walk the path shown by Prabhu Shri Ram. pic.twitter.com/3K9j6CQS68

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 25, 2025

At the ceremony marking its completion on Tuesday, Modi said that flag being hoisted would give inspiration that one can lose their life but not promises. He claimed that while the country had received freedom, it could not get over the mindset of slavery.

This mindset was what termed the Hindu deity Ram as “imaginary”, the prime minister added.

“The mindset of slavery said that our Constitution is inspired from outside but India is the founder of democracy,” The Indian Express quoted him as saying. “Democracy is in our DNA.”

He added that an India inspired by a “Ram Rajya”, or the utopian reign of Ram, must be created.

Commenting on the ceremony, Congress leader Rashid Alvi noted that India had no religion as per the Constitution, ANI reported. “...then why does the PM want to hoist this flag?” Alvi asked. “Will he hoist a flag on a mosque, Gurudwara or a church?”

The Congress leader said that Modi wanted to hoist the flag on the Ram temple so that he can benefit from it politically in the Uttar Pradesh elections and also instigate religious sentiments in the country.

“He should learn secularism [former Prime Minister] Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru…,” Alvi added.

#WATCH | Delhi | On PM Modi hoists Dharma Dhwaj atop Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Temple, Congress leader Rashid Alvi says, "This country has no religion as per the constitution, then why does the PM want to hoist this flag?... Will he hoist a flag on a mosque, Gurudwara or a church? He… pic.twitter.com/uFvN25UqOw

— ANI (@ANI) November 25, 2025

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Waris Pathan said that December 6, 1992, was a “black day” for the country and for democracy as the Babri Masjid was demolished “through a conspiracy”, ANI reported.

“We believe that the mosque will remain where it was...” Pathan said. “He [Modi] went there and hoisted the flag...You are not the prime minister of a particular community, you are the prime minister of the entire country...”

The Assam government has tabled a bill in the state Assembly to ban polygamy, the practice of having more than one wife. The bill proposes up to seven years’ imprisonment for those convicted of polygamy, while those who conceal their previous marriage can face up to ten years in jail.

Further, if parents, priests or village heads hide a polygamous marriage from the police, or “unreasonably” delay informing the authorities about it, they would also be held liable for abetting the offence.

The draft law – the Assam Prohibition of Polygamy Bill, 2025 – was introduced in the absence of Opposition MLAs, who had staged a walkout following a discussion on the death of singer Zubeen Garg.

The bill will be taken up for discussion later in the Winter Session. Read on.

In Assam, Muslim women cautiously welcome move to outlaw polygamy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday hoisted a saffron flag at the Ram temple in Ayodhya, marking the completion of its construction. He claimed that the event marked “centuries-old injuries” being healed, and “centuries of torture” finding respite.

However, the Congress’ Rashid Alvi said that India has no religion as per the Constitution, and questioned whether Modi would similarly hoist a flag atop a mosque, gurdwara or church.

The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992, by Hindutva extremists who claimed that an ancient Ram temple had stood on the site. The Ram temple that now stands at the site was built in line with a Supreme Court verdict from 2019. Read on.

An Indian woman has alleged that she was detained for 18 hours at the Shanghai airport after Chinese immigration officials claimed her passport was invalid because it listed her birthplace as Arunachal Pradesh. Beijing refers to Arunachal Pradesh as Zangnan, and lays territorial claims over a large portion of the state, although India maintains that the state is a part of its territory.

Prema Thongdok, who has lived in the United Kingdom for 14 years and is from Arunachal Pradesh, was travelling from London to Japan on November 21 with a scheduled three-hour layover in Shanghai.

She said that she was stopped during the security check for her connecting flight to Tokyo and informed that her passport could not be accepted because of her birthplace.

Unidentified officials in the Ministry of External Affairs said that India had issued a protest letter to Chinese authorities in both Beijing and New Delhi. The officials said that the passengers had been detained on “ludicrous grounds” and asserted that Arunachal Pradesh “is indisputably Indian territory”.

China, however, denied that Thongdok had been harassed or detained, and claimed that its officials acted lawfully. Read on.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma reiterated his claim that the death of singer Zubeen Garg in Singapore was not accidental but “plain and simple murder”. He made the claim despite the Singapore Police saying in October that preliminary investigations into the death did not indicate foul play.

Garg died on September 19 during a yacht trip in Singapore, a day before he was scheduled to perform at the North East India Festival there. Singaporean authorities said on his death certificate that he died of drowning.

However, seven persons have been arrested in connection with his death in India.

On Tuesday, Opposition MLAs demanded that an official statement be issued to back Sarma’s claim that Garg was murdered, and that his death was not an accident. Sarma subsequently told the Assembly that one of the men accused in the case killed the singer and the others helped him. Read on.

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Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday reiterated his claim that the death of singer Zubeen Garg in Singapore was not accidental but was a “plain and simple murder”, PTI reported.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader made the remarks while speaking in the Assembly during a discussion on an adjournment motion moved by the Opposition on the death of the singer.

“After preliminary probe, the Assam Police was sure that it was not a case of culpable homicide but it was a plain and simple murder,” the news agency quoted Sarma as saying. “That is why Section 103 of BNS [Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita] was added to the case within three days of his death.”

Section 103 outlines the punishment for murder.

Zubeen Garg, a renowned Assamese singer, died on September 19 during a yacht trip in Singapore, a day before he was scheduled to perform at the North East India Festival there.

The event had been organised by the Indian government and the Indian high commission in Singapore, with support from the Assam Association and the North East India Association in the country.

A death certificate issued by the Singaporean authorities on September 20 stated the cause of Zubeen Garg’s death as drowning.

Seven persons have been arrested in the case.

This includes Shyamkanu Mahanta, who was the organiser of the North East India Festival, Zubeen Garg’s manager Siddharatha Sharma and two musicians who were with the singer on the yacht – Shekharjyoti Goswami and Amritprava Mahanta.

Others who have been arrested include Zubeen Garg’s cousin Deputy Superintendent of Police Sandipan Garg, who had travelled with him to Singapore, and two of the singer’s personal security officers.

A special investigation team that has been looking into the circumstances of the singer’s death had added murder charges to the case.

However, the Singapore Police Force on October 17 had said that it did not suspect foul play in the singer’s death following preliminary investigations in the matter.

It had added that the probe may take up to three more months to complete, following which the findings would be submitted to the State Coroner, a judicial officer, who would determine whether the matter required a Coroner’s Inquiry.

In the Assembly on Tuesday, several Opposition MLAs demanded that a detailed statement backing Sarma’s repeated claim that Zubeen Garg’s death was a “murder” be issued, The Indian Express reported.

The chief minister, during his address, claimed that one of the men accused in the case killed Zubeen Garg and the others helped him, PTI reported. “Four to five people are being booked in the murder case,” he further claimed.

Sarma added: “After the chargesheet in the murder case is submitted in December, the probe will be expanded to include negligence, criminal breach of trust and other aspects.”

The chief minister also said that the SIT will file a “watertight chargesheet”, adding that the motive behind the alleged crime “will shock the people of the state”.

Also read:

• Are Assam protests over Zubeen Garg’s death becoming a political challenge for Himanta?

• ‘Police raj’: In aftermath of Zubeen Garg death, a spate of arrests, detentions of protesting fans

• Why musician Zubeen Garg’s death has unleashed a storm of anger in Assam

• What does Assam’s moment of unity around Zubeen Garg’s death mean in a time of divisive politics?

An Indian woman has alleged that she was detained at the Shanghai airport for 18 hours on November 21 after the Chinese immigration authorities claimed that her passport was invalid because it showed her birthplace as Arunachal Pradesh.

Beijing refers to Arunachal Pradesh as Zangnan. It lays territorial claims over a large portion of the state, claiming that it is “South Tibet”. India has rejected the Chinese claims.

Prema Thongdok, who has lived in the United Kingdom for 14 years, is a native of Rupa town in Arunachal Pradesh’s West Kameng district, The Indian Express reported. Her family still lives in the town.

Thongdok told the newspaper that she was travelling from London to Japan and that her journey included a three-hour layover at the Shanghai Pudong airport.

The woman said that she was singled out during the security check for her Shanghai-Tokyo flight.

She had transited through the same airport in October and had faced no problem at the time, she told the newspaper.

“There was no issue, which is why it is clear that this was a case of harassment,” Thongdok told The Indian Express. “I was waiting in the queue at the security gate when a lady came, singled me out, and took me out of the queue.”

Thongdok said that the officials pointed to her passport, which showed Arunachal Pradesh as her birthplace.

“They were insisting that Arunachal Pradesh is a part of China, and that therefore my passport is not valid,” she said. “I asked them what laws state this or what written document specifies that such a passport is invalid.”

She added: “One of them [Chinese officials] even said that I should get a Chinese passport, because I am Chinese. They were mocking me. I was held at the airport for 18 hours, after I had already travelled 12 hours from London. They kept my passport and didn’t let me leave.”

Thongdok said that she could not access food. She also could not access information as Google is banned in China under Beijing’s censorship policies.

The Chinese officials did not allow her to continue her journey to Japan and insisted that she either return to the UK or go to India, she alleged.

She managed to call a friend in the UK who got in touch with the Indian consulate general in Shanghai. Indian diplomats arrived at the airport within an hour with food, she told the newspaper.

Thongdok said that the Indian officials were unable to persuade the Chinese immigration officials to let her continue her journey to Japan.

She was able to book a flight to India, transiting through Thailand.

In an email to the Ministry of External Affairs, Thongdok said that a “bilateral or geopolitical matter was misdirected at a private Indian citizen”. She urged New Delhi to take up the incident “strongly” with Beijing and that compensation be secured for “harassment, distress, and physical and mental suffering” and financial losses.

Detained on ludicrous grounds, says MEA

The Hindu quoted unidentified officials in the external affairs ministry as saying that a démarche has been made with the Chinese side in Beijing and in Delhi.

“It was stressed that the passenger had been detained on ludicrous grounds,” the newspaper quoted officials as saying.

They added that Arunachal Pradesh is “indisputably Indian territory, and its residents are perfectly entitled to hold and travel” with Indian passports.

New Delhi also said that the actions of the Chinese authorities were in contravention of the Chicago and Montreal Conventions relating to civil aviation.

Acted lawfully, claims China

Later on Tuesday, China refuted the allegations that Thongdok was harassed at the Shanghai airport, saying that the actions taken by the Chinese immigration officials were as per laws and regulations, PTI reported.

Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Mao Ning claimed that the woman was not subjected to any compulsory measures, detainment or harassment as was alleged, adding that the airline also provided her with food and a place to rest.

“We learnt that China’s border inspection authorities have gone through the whole process according to the laws and regulations, and fully protected the lawful rights and interests of the person concerned,” the news agency quoted Mao as saying.

The spokesperson also reiterated China’s claims over Arunachal Pradesh.

“Zangnan is China’s territory,” PTI quoted her as saying. “China never acknowledged the so-called Arunachal Pradesh”.

The Assam government on Tuesday tabled a bill in the Assembly to ban polygamy.

The draft proposes up to seven years of imprisonment for persons convicted of polygamy, the practice of having more than one wife. Further, those found guilty of having concealed their previous marriage can face punishment of up to ten years’ imprisonment.

The bill also states that if parents, priests or village heads hide a polygamous marriage from the police, or “unreasonably” delay providing such information to the authorities, they would also be held liable for abetting the offence.

Further, a priest who knowingly solemnises a polygamous marriage can be punished with imprisonment of up to two years.

The 2025 Assam Prohibition of Polygamy Bill was introduced even as MLAs from the Opposition Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Raijor Dal were absent, PTI reported. The legislators had staged a walkout following a discussion on the death of singer Zubeen Garg.

While the bill was tabled on Tuesday, it will be taken up for discussion later in the Winter Session.

The Cabinet had approved the bill on November 9.

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said at the time that the proposed legislation exempts Scheduled Tribe communities.

Sarma had also said that the law will also not “immediately” apply to areas under the Bodoland Territorial Council, the Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council and the Dima Hasao Autonomous Council under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution.

Eight out of Assam’s thirty-five districts are part of the three councils.

The Sixth Schedule guarantees protection for land and nominal autonomy for citizens in designated tribal-dominated areas.

The law will apply to everyone else in the state, the chief minister had said, but added that Muslims residing in a Sixth Schedule area prior to 2005 will be exempted.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader had said that the state government will also create a fund to compensate the victims of polygamy. “The government will help with financial support in the required cases so that no woman faces hardship in her life,” PTI had quoted him as saying on November 9.

The chief minister has for long advocated a ban on polygamy, often framing it as a practice exclusive to the Muslim community. Sarma has said the intended ban on polygamy was to empower Muslim women in the state.

Several activists, scholars and women from the community have welcomed the decision to ban the practice in principle. However, many are apprehensive about it being a measure to criminalise the community.

Polygamy is allowed in Muslim personal law. The practice was banned among Hindus in the 1950s through the Hindu Code Bill, which also regulates aspects such as inheritance, adoption, marriage and divorce.

The push to criminalise polygamy is also often used as a justification by Hindutva organisations to introduce a Uniform Civil Code.

The code is a common set of laws governing marriage, divorce, succession and adoption for all citizens. Currently, such personal affairs of different religious and tribal groups are based on community-specific laws, largely derived from religious scripture.

The introduction of a common personal law has long been on the BJP’s agenda and several states ruled by the Hindutva party have been taking steps towards implementing it.

In January, the Uttarakhand government implemented the Uniform Civil Code, making it the first state to do so after Independence. A common civil code has been in place in Goa since the Portuguese Civil Code was adopted in 1867.

In its campaign for the Uniform Civil Code in Uttarakhand, the BJP had mainly targeted the Muslim personal law, arguing that it discriminates against women as it allows Muslim men to practice polygamy, inherit a greater share of property, initiate divorce and deny alimony.

Also read: In Assam, Muslim women cautiously welcome move to outlaw polygamy

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a petition filed by a Christian Army officer challenging his termination for refusing to take part in religious rituals during weekly regimental parades, Live Law reported.

A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi refused to interfere with a Delhi High Court order from May that upheld the dismissal of Lieutenant Samuel Kamalesan in 2021.

The bench questioned whether his refusal to participate in the rituals did not amount to hurting the religious sentiments of soldiers under his command.

“If this is the attitude of an Army officer, then what to say!” Bar and Bench quoted the chief justice as saying.

Commissioned in 2017 and posted with a Sikh squadron, Kamalesan had faced disciplinary proceedings for refusing to enter the inner sanctum of the regiment’s Hindu temple and gurudwara during mandatory parades.

In his petition, Kamlesan held that he accompanied his troops to the temple and gurudwara for the weekly religious parades and festivals. However, he said that he had sought an exemption from entering the inner sanctum of the religious structures.

This was done not only as a sign of respect to his Christian faith but also out of respect for the sentiments of his troops, so that his non-participation in rituals in the inner shrine would not offend their religious sentiments, Kamalesan said in his petition.

The Army, however, claimed that he refused to change his stance despite counselling by senior officers and Christian clergy, Bar and Bench reported.

The officer’s refusal undermined unit cohesion and troop morale, it added.

Kamalesan was terminated from service in 2021, an order he challenged in the High Court.

In May, the High Court held that the issue was not one of religious freedom but of obeying a lawful command of a superior.

Before the Supreme Court, advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing Kamalesan, argued that the officer had committed only one infraction, which was refusing to enter the sanctum at his place of posting, Live Law reported.

Kant responded: “Is this sort of cantankerous conduct permissible in a disciplined force?”

The bench also noted that a pastor had earlier stated that entering the sanctum did not violate Christian tenets, a view the advocate said applied only to a Sarv Dharm Sthal.

Pointing out that the location also had a gurudwara, Kant said it was “one of the most secular places”.

“The manner in which he is behaving, is he not insulting the other religions?” Live Law quoted him as asking. “Religious ego such high that he does not care about others?”

Sankaranarayanan said that Kamalesan had objected only when asked to perform rituals and that Article 25 protected his freedom not to worship a deity.

However, Bagchi said Article 25 safeguards essential religious practices, not every sentiment, and that a commanding officer must respect the “collective faith” of the troops. “Where in Christian faith is entering a temple barred?” he asked.

Kant added that leaders must “lead by example” and said the officer’s conduct showed “grossest indiscipline”.

During the hearing, Kant also observed that the officer was completely “misfit” for the Army, Bar and Bench reported.

“Army [is] completely secular in approach,” Bar and Bench quoted the Supreme Court as saying. “You may do well elsewhere.. any constitutional provision with a grey area, we will look into it. You are guilty of violating ... [Army Rules]. You have hurt the feelings of the soldiers.”

Two Indian airlines have cancelled flights and several others issued advisories in the past two days after ash from a volcanic eruption in Ethiopia drifted into the country’s airspace.

Hayli Gubbi, a volcano in the East African country’s Afar region, erupted on Sunday after more than 10,000 years, Reuters reported. The eruption produced a large cloud of ash rising to about 14 km, or 45,000 ft, in altitude and spreading eastward across the Red Sea and northern Arabian Sea.

Plumes of ash moved over several countries, including parts of India, Yemen, Oman and Pakistan. The India Meteorological Department on Tuesday said that ash clouds were drifting towards China and will move away from India by 7.30 pm, the Hindustan Times reported.

The weather agency also cited forecast models as indicating the influence of the plumes over Gujarat, Delhi and adjoining areas of the National Capital Region, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana.

In light of the situation, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Monday issued an urgent operational advisory to all Indian airlines, urging them to strictly avoid volcanic ash-affected areas and flight altitudes, The Indian Express reported.

Airlines were also directed to adjust flight planning, routing, and fuel considerations, taking into account the situation and report any suspected ash encounter, “including engine performance anomalies or cabin smoke/odour”.

On Tuesday, Air India and Akasa Air said they had cancelled several flights.

Air India cancelled 11 international and domestic flights on Monday and Tuesday, including from New York to Delhi, Dubai to Hyderabad and Chennai to Mumbai.

The Indian air carrier said that the flights had been cancelled as precautionary checks were being undertaken because these aircraft “had flown over certain geographical locations after the Hayli Gubbi volcanic eruption”.

“Our ground teams across the network are keeping passengers updated on their flight status and are providing immediate assistance, including hotel accommodation,” Air India said on social media.

Akasa Air also said that it had scrapped several flights scheduled to operate towards West Asian destinations such as Jeddah, Kuwait and Abu Dhabi during the two days, Reuters reported.

On Monday, IndiGo issued an advisory saying that its teams were closely tracking the situation in coordination with international aviation bodies

“We are fully prepared with all necessary precautions to ensure safe and reliable operations,” it said on social media. “Our 6E teams are available across all touchpoints to support you with any assistance you may need.”

SpiceJet said on Monday that the volcanic eruption in Ethiopia may impact flight operations for aircraft flying through parts of the Arabian Peninsula

“As safety remains our top priority, our Flight Operations and Safety teams are closely coordinating with aviation authorities and continuously monitoring ash cloud movement,” it said.

It urged passengers travelling to or from Dubai to check the flight status on the airline’s website.

A Special Investigation Team on Monday opposed former Karnataka MP Prajwal Revanna’s request before the Karnataka High Court to suspend his life sentence and grant him bail in a rape case, arguing that he would be “menace to the society” if released, Live Law reported.

The division bench of Justices KS Mudgal and Venkatesh Naik T was told by Special Public Prosecutor Ravivarma Kumar that granting Prajwal Revanna bail could place the complainant in danger.

Kumar argued that the circumstances of the offence were significant and that, if released on bail, the former MP was “not only likely to indulge in similar offences and he would be a menace to the society”.

He added that the complainant had been abducted twice and that the pending abduction case, in which she is a witness and Prajwal Revanna’s parents are accused, could be jeopardised if he were freed.

Kumar also argued that the court should consider Prajwal Revanna’s background.

“[H]e is grandson of a former prime minister,” Live Law quoted Kumar as saying. “He was also district in-charge minister for Hassan district. The entire district machinery including IAS [Indian Administrative Service] officers worked to protect the appellant and his father and never came to the rescue of the victim and her family.”

He further highlighted that the presumption that bail is the rule and jail an exception applies to pre-trial bail and not to cases where the person has already been convicted.

The former MP from Karnataka’s Hassan had been arrested on May 31, 2024, after returning to Bengaluru from Germany, where he had fled on April 26, 2024. He was suspended from the Janata Dal (Secular) on April 30, 2024.

He had fled after videos of alleged sexual assaults against several women, allegedly recorded by Prajwal Revanna himself, surfaced during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

He has since been named in four separate cases, including one in which he was convicted on August 2. A trial court found him guilty of raping a 48-year-old worker employed at his family’s farmhouse and recording the assault.

Three women have accused Prajwal Revanna of sexual assault, while the fourth case concerns allegations of sexual harassment, stalking and criminal intimidation under the Indian Penal Code.

Soon after Prajwal Revanna fled to Germany, he and his father, former state minister HD Revanna, were booked by the Karnataka Police for sexual harassment and criminal intimidation.

After being convicted, Prajwal Revanna moved the Karnataka High Court, which is scheduled to continue hearing his plea on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court on Monday sought responses from the Election Commission and the Union government on a petition challenging the constitutional validity of a section of the Income Tax Act, which permits political parties to accept cash donations of up to Rs 2,000 anonymously, PTI reported.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta issued notice after hearing the petitioner who argued that Section 13A(d) of the Act undermines financial transparency and violates Article 14 and Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution by restricting voters’ right to know the source of political funding, Bar and Bench reported.

Article 14 guarantees the right to equality and 19(1)(a) the freedom of speech.

The court said it will hear the matter after four weeks.

“Ultimately, this undermines the purity of the election process and compromises the integrity and accountability of a healthy democracy by allowing the potential influence of undisclosed or tainted money,” PTI quoted the plea as saying.

The petition said there is no justification for continuing with cash donations when digital payments in India have expanded rapidly, pointing to Unified Payments Interface transactions of more than Rs 24 lakh crore in June, Bar and Bench reported.

Some parties such as the Bahujan Samaj Party, the petition said, reported “nil contributions” by recording their entire income as membership fees received in cash for several years, Live Law reported.

The plea also argued that political parties enjoy significant statutory benefits such as tax exemptions, reserved symbols, subsidised land and accommodation, and should therefore meet higher standards of accountability, Bar and Bench reported.

The petition asked the court to strike down Section 13A(d) of the Income Tax Act as unconstitutional.

It cited the Supreme Court’s February 2024 judgement that struck down the electoral bonds scheme as unconstitutional saying it could foster quid pro quo relationships between donors and political parties.

Electoral bonds were paper instruments that anyone could buy from the State Bank of India and give to a political party, which could redeem them for money.

Also read: Will the Rs 2,000 cap on cash donations for political parties bring more transparency in the system?

The Delhi Police has arrested 22 persons for allegedly obstructing its personnel, assaulting them and blocking the road during a protest against worsening air pollution in the national capital on Sunday, reported The Indian Express.

This came after the protesters allegedly used pepper spray on police personnel while being removed from the protest site.

Most of those arrested are college students, according to The Indian Express.

The police told a Delhi court that they were also investigating “any Naxal links” as the protesters had allegedly shouted “slogans in support of Naxalites”, the newspaper reported. They were also probing if the protesters had displayed posters of Maoist leader Madvi Hidma, who was killed in a gunfight with security forces in Andhra Pradesh’s Alluri Sitarama Raju district on November 18.

Two first information reports have been filed in the case.

In the first, six persons were produced before the court, following which five were remanded to two days’ judicial custody. Another person was sent to an observation home under the Juvenile Justice Act while his age was being verified.

The second FIR, involving 17 persons, including 11 women, was heard by Judicial Magistrate Sahil Monga on Monday. They were sent to judicial custody for three days, PTI reported.

The police told the court that no permission had been sought for the protest.

“On Sunday, the protesters blocked the C-Hexagon after jumping over police barricades,” PTI quoted an unidentified police official as saying. “They sat on the road for over an hour, and even people stuck in the traffic jam were requesting them to clear the way, but they did not leave despite repeated requests.”

Another officer told The Indian Express that the protesters used pepper spray, manhandled women personnel and later scuffled with police again at the Parliament Street station.

On the other hand, some protesters have alleged that they were assaulted and that women were groped in custody.

“The allegations are serious and the matter is at an early stage of investigation,” The Indian Express quoted the judge as saying. “Identity verification of several accused persons is pending and digital electronic evidence is yet to be examined.”

The protests come as Delhi’s average air quality has stood at the higher end of the “very poor” category in November despite restrictions to curb pollution. Since mid-October, the air quality in the national capital has dipped to “poor” or worse categories.

Air quality deteriorates sharply in the winter months in Delhi, which is often ranked the world’s most polluted capital.

Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, vehicular pollution, along with the lighting of firecrackers during Diwali, falling temperatures, decreased wind speeds and emissions from industries and coal-fired plants contribute to the problem.

Also read: Why air quality numbers in Delhi vary widely

All government and private offices in Delhi were on Monday directed to restrict physical attendance of employees to 50%, with the remaining workforce required to mandatorily work from home, as air pollution levels remain high.

The order, issued by the Department of Environment and Forests, followed an advisory from the Commission for Air Quality Management.

“Since vehicular pollution would cause extensive air pollution and release harmful air pollutants particularly when air quality is very poor…it is felt that there needs to be more curbs on vehicular movement,” the directive noted.

It asked all private offices to introduce staggered working hours where possible and limit office commutes.

Similar directives were also issued to government departments. However, administrative secretaries and heads of departments were allowed to call in staff as required to “ensure uninterrupted delivery of essential and emergency public services”.

Essential services, such as health establishments, fire services, prisons, public transport, electricity, water supply, sanitation, disaster management, municipal services and agencies involved in air pollution control and enforcement, were exempted from the directive.

On November 7, Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced that employees of the Delhi government and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi would follow staggered working hours from November 15 to February 15.

This came as Delhi’s average air quality has stood at the higher end of the “very poor” category in November despite restrictions to curb pollution. Since mid-October, the air quality in the national capital has dipped to “poor” or worse categories.

Air quality deteriorates sharply in the winter months in Delhi, which is often ranked the world’s most polluted capital.

Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, along with the lighting of firecrackers during Diwali, vehicular pollution, falling temperatures, decreased wind speeds and emissions from industries and coal-fired plants contribute to the problem.

On Saturday, the Commission for Air Quality Management revised the Graded Response Action Plan schedule to introduce measures such as staggered work hours, expanded public transport and work-from-home options as part of Stage 3 restrictions that have been in place since November 11.

The Graded Response Action Plan is a set of incremental anti-pollution measures that are triggered to prevent further worsening of air quality once it reaches a certain threshold in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

Restrictions under Stage 3 otherwise entail a ban on non-essential construction work and the closure of stone crushers and mining activities, in addition to the measures already imposed under Stage 1 and Stage 2.

They also include the shifting of primary school up to Class 5 to hybrid mode. Parents and students have the option to choose between offline and online classes wherever available.

Additionally, the use of BS-III petrol and BS-IV diesel cars is restricted in Delhi and the NCR. BS norms, or Bharat Stage Emission Standards, are regulations set by the Indian government to control air pollutants from motor vehicles.

On Friday, the Delhi government directed all schools in the national capital to suspend outdoor activities in November and December in view of the health risks the deteriorating air pollution levels could pose to children.

Delhi-NCR AQI

The Air Quality Index in Delhi on Tuesday morning stood at 363, placing it in the “very poor” category, showed the Sameer application, which provides hourly updates published by the Central Pollution Control Board, at 7.06 am.

In areas adjoining the national capital, Noida recorded an AQI of 390, placing it at the higher end of the “very poor” category. Greater Noida also logged “very poor” air quality with an index of 396, while Ghaziabad reported an AQI of 348.

In Haryana, Gurugram registered an AQI of 311, placing it in the “very poor” category, while Faridabad recorded an AQI of 222.

An index value between 0 and 50 indicates “good” air quality, between 51 and 100 indicates “satisfactory” air quality and between 101 and 200 indicates “moderate” air quality. As the index value increases further, air quality deteriorates. A value of 201 and 300 means “poor” air quality, while between 301 and 400 indicates “very poor” air.

Between 401 and 450 indicates “severe” air pollution, while anything above the 450 threshold is termed “severe plus”. An Air Quality Index in the “severe” category signifies hazardous pollution levels that can pose serious risks even to healthy individuals.

On November 18, the Supreme Court declined to impose year-round restrictions on activities prohibited under GRAP, holding that the national capital “cannot be brought to a standstill” in the name of fighting air pollution.

Also read: Why air quality numbers in Delhi vary widely

As the world’s most populous nation, changes in the way India is growing deeply affect the world. Yet these key shifts are not adequately documented or discussed, both within India and globally.

At Data For India, we track these changes closely, using high-quality Indian and global data sources. Through this three-part series, we attempt to pull together vital Indian data on demographic shifts, place them within the context of other socio-economic changes taking place in India, and set them against a global backdrop. With this, we identify new areas of research as well as directions for policy and discussion.

In Part I, we brought together the data to describe the current moment, and the key recent data points that we argue have gone relatively unnoticed. In Part II, we examine data around falling birth rates, and share research that suggests India is both an outlier and a part of a global trend. In Part III, we will look at the data on demographic differences between Indian states and how it feeds into current socio-economic and political tensions.

Of all of the dimensions of population change – falling fertility, growing life expectancy, migration, epidemiological transitions – few seem to capture public imagination as much as the number of children a woman has. Real or perceived high fertility rates among some groups and falling fertility among others has emerged as a cultural flashpoint with resonances far beyond demography conferences, and has come to be a major part of media and political debate in India as well as the rest of the world.

In this piece, we look at five key aspects of changing fertility rates in India using a combination of high-quality Indian and global data and discuss how India is part of a global trend in many ways, but also an important outlier in some aspects of fertility.

We use the United Nations World Population Prospects, 2024 Revision, for global data. We use population projections from India’s 2011 Census, the Sample Registration System, and the National Family Health Survey for Indian data.

1. TFR in India is now below replacement nationally

The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is the average number of children that a woman is likely to have in her lifetime. When a country's TFR drops to 2.1, meaning that women will have an average of 2.1 children over their lifetimes, demographers say that the country has reached “replacement fertility”.

If two adults have a notional 2.1 children between them, then, accounting for some likelihood of death during childhood or adolescence, that couple will produce two adults, and the size of the population will remain the same. This is a key milestone in a country’s demographic journey. If fertility falls below that level, the population will begin to decline in absolute numbers.

By Indian estimates, TFR fell below replacement in 2019, with TFR in urban India reaching this milestone much earlier in 2004. TFR in rural India is also estimated to have fallen below replacement as of 2023, the most recent year for which official Indian data is available.

Indian national data on fertility comes from the annual Sample Registration System, a large sample nationally representative household survey. The most recent Sample Registration System data is for 2023. While the Sample Registration System produces estimates for rural and urban India and for Indian states, it does not produce estimates by socio-economic characteristics including education levels, income group, or social group. For this, we use India’s nationally representative National Family Health Survey, part of the Demographic and Health Surveys system. India’s most recent National Family Health Survey was conducted in 2019-’21. The National Family Health Survey’s estimates of TFR are slightly higher than the Sample Registration System data for the same year.

Across the world, TFR is higher among poorer and less educated groups, and then falls over time as those groups get richer and better educated. In India too, TFR was highest among the poorest 20% of Indian households, where the average woman had an estimated one child more on average than the average woman in the richest 20% of households. The gap between less and more educated women is similar: women with no schooling have an average of one child more than women with 12 or more years of schooling. However, over time, TFR has fallen in both richer and poorer households, and among women with more and less education.

TFR is also higher among women from Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes – marginalised communities that face caste-based discrimination and disadvantages – as compared to women from privileged caste groups. A sharper cleavage in India, however, is the higher TFR of Muslim women as compared to other religious groups and Hindu women in particular.

TFR among Muslim women has consistently been higher than for other religious groups, correlated with the substantially lower household income of Muslim households in India. While continuing to be higher than the TFR among other religious groups, fertility rates for Muslim women have fallen substantially too.

Moreover, in India’s richer states where household incomes are higher and women’s education rates are higher, fertility rates are lower for all groups, including both Hindus and Muslims. TFR among Muslim women in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, among India’s richest states with the lowest fertility, is lower than it is among Hindu women in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, India’s poorer states with higher fertility.

2. TFR has been below replacement for a long time in some parts of the country

The recency of India’s national TFR falling below replacement levels can make India seem like a new entrant to the global conversation on falling birth rates. However, certain regions have been living with fertility rates that are as low as in parts of the developed world for several decades now.

Kerala was the first Indian state to reach replacement fertility in 1988, when the national TFR was still 4. Tamil Nadu followed five years later in 1993, and Andhra Pradesh a decade after Tamil Nadu in 2004. West Bengal in India’s east is an outlier in terms of fertility – despite being one of India’s poorest states, the state reached replacement fertility in 2005.

This is more so the case in the urban parts of Indian states. By 2023, TFR was below replacement levels in all Indian states except for Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Even so, public and political conversation around falling fertility is relatively new even in the southern states, despite over two decades of experience of low birth rates. In Andhra Pradesh, for instance, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu in January suggested disqualifying candidates for local elections if they had fewer than two children, as an incentive for families to have more children. Yet, until just three months before Naidu’s suggestion, the state had debarred people with more than two children from contesting local elections. (That legislation was scrapped in October 2024, thirty years after it was first brought in).

3. Falling fertility in India is driven by women having fewer children sooner rather than having more children later

In most of the developed world, falling fertility manifests as women having fewer children later in life. In India, however, falling fertility plays out in the form of women continuing to have their children relatively early, but then stopping after two children and not having more children later in life.

Over the past two decades, the age at which women have their first child has grown only slightly, by less than two years; the median Indian mother now has her first child at just over 21 years. This tracks closely with changes in the age at which Indian women get married, which is just over 18 years.

What has changed significantly, however, is the age at which women have their last child. As families become smaller, more women are completing all their pregnancies in their twenties. As a result, the median age at which an Indian mother has her last child has fallen more substantially, by more than five years.

Across the world, as incomes and access to education rise, women begin to marry slightly later and have children later. While this is taking place in India as well, the majority of births every year in India are still to women who are in their 20s, as compared to, for example, the United Kingdom where women now have their first child much later, and most births are now to women in their 30s.

However, the change in India is apparent as well. Since the 1950s, the majority of births every year in India have been to women in their early 20s. The United Nations’ population estimates suggest that this likely changed in the last few years, and that the largest share of annual births in India is now to women in their late 20s.

4. Why is fertility falling in India and in the world?

Global scholarship around low birth rates has tended to be country or region-specific and, excluding India from the analysis, has not just missed one-sixth of humanity, but has also resulted in a skewed, and less-than-universal theory of why birth rates are falling.

In their 2025 book, After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People, economists Dean Spears and Michael Geruso, for the first time, assemble high quality data from across the world to understand why fertility really is falling. In North America and Europe, the opportunity costs for women who temporarily or permanently withdraw from the workforce to have children are substantial and demonstrable, Spears and Geruso argue. But this simply doesn’t hold in India.

“It might be tempting, especially after considering the opportunity costs of careers, to think that we’ve arrived at a grand theory of fertility decline: Low birth rates simply and invariably arrive if and because women attain the freedom and power to pursue careers. But it turns out that this cannot be the one grand theory,” they write. “Consider India. The path that India has taken to low fertility is a challenge to this grand theory of fertility decline – and most of the other grand theories of fertility decline, too.”

As Spears and Geruso point out, there is no universal pattern here. Most adult women in India don’t work for pay outside the home, while most women in East Asia or Europe do, but at similar birth rates. In the same graph, there are also countries with higher rates of labour force participation than India, and higher birth rates as well. The age at which Indian women have their children is also lower in India than in East Asia, North America or Europe, meaning that women delaying childbirth for their careers is also not an explanation for falling fertility here. “In India, low fertility is happening without a conflict between parenting and women’s careers,” Spears and Geruso write.

Why then are birth rates falling in India and elsewhere? Spears and Geruso argue against a grand theory and make the case that there is much that we do not know about low birth rates, in part, complicated by India, which nullifies popular hypotheses in the western world, including the rise of liberalism and feminism, the decline of marriage and religion, and the rise in women’s participation in the workforce.

Instead, they argue that the world has gotten better in many different, small, and big ways that make the opportunity cost of having children too great. These include both economic opportunity costs, but also intangibles – simply put, the growing pleasures of having more time to do more of the nice things that people would like to do. “Whatever matters to someone – which includes values old and new – “having several children” now would cost a larger deduction from “having what matters to me” than ever before,” they write.

Coercive population controls also do not significantly alter fertility patterns in the long-run, Spears and Geruso argue. Despite the argument of southern Indian politicians that their states have low fertility rates as a result of successfully implemented family planning programs, what’s far more likely is that these states are merely on the same trajectory as the rest of the world, with India’s poorer states just a little lower down on the same ladder.

5. What is the future of fertility in India?

The United Nations Population Division publishes a revision to its World Population Prospects every two years. Its most recent revision in 2024 suggests that India’s fertility rate will now fall gradually for the next 75 years for which the UN has made projections. At the projected rates of fertility and mortality, India’s population is expected to decline in absolute terms from 2060 onward.

This is similar to UN projections for other countries, where the estimates broadly predict fertility to decline only slowly over the next 75 years and to remain at roughly between 1.5 and 2. South Korea is one of the only countries in the world where TFR is now below 1; here the UN estimates that TFR will rebound slightly to rise over 1, and then remain over 1 for the rest of this century.

However, fertility could continue to fall lower than the UN’s current estimates. India’s own population projections are dated as a result of having been made off the 2011 Census. These projections suggest that by 2035, at least seven major Indian states including Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir will have a TFR of 1.5. These projections are also likely to be under-estimates; the TFR of states like Bihar was, by 2023, already significantly lower than the 2011 projections.

Some Indian politicians and demographers are beginning to acknowledge the challenges of low birth rates, and are beginning to suggest policies that might be needed to reverse this. However, history suggests that reversals will not happen easily, in part, because the discussion in India is often based on a faulty reading of its demographic history and the belief that public policy lowered fertility in the first place.

Since 1950, there have been 26 countries where the TFR has fallen below 1.9, Spears and Geruso find. “Never, in any one of these twenty-six countries, has the lifetime birth rate again risen to a level high enough to stabilise the population. Not in Canada, not in Japan, not in Scotland, not in Taiwan. Not for people born in any year. In some of these countries, governments believe they have policies to promote and support parenting. But all of them continue to have birth rates below two.”

Indian politicians appear to be toying with exhortations and incentives as twin strategies to raise birth rates. The evidence suggests that neither strategy is likely to work. In the absence of a reversal then, there are monumental implications for Indian society to consider.

The first of these is the spectre of an altered age structure, and its implications for society and the economy (Part 3 of this series deals with this topic, at the state level in particular).

Then there is also the impact that this could have on the lives of Indian women, and their interaction with the labour force in particular.

The share of adult Indian women who report that they are either working or looking for work is less than half that of men, and substantially lower than in most of the rest of the world. Women who report that they are out of the labour force are taking care of their households – both unpaid housework as well as unpaid care work principally of their children.

The gap between labour force participation rates for men and women in India is largest in their late 20s, when childbirth and child-rearing responsibilities peak for Indian women. As Indian women complete pregnancies within a shorter span, this shorter window of fertility could make women available to the labour market sooner. However, as the age at which women have their first child starts to rise, as it has elsewhere in the world, the timing of women’s entry or re-entry into the labour force could also shift in time.

There is also the question of the aspirations of a society that chooses to have fewer children in the hope of a better life for both those children and themselves, and how these can be met. If Indian women are not having fewer children because of labour market factors, the choices they appear to be making for a more enjoyable life will need a proper reckoning. This has implications for the quality of education, healthcare, and the environment, but also on leisure, travel, art and the public sphere.

Whether declining birth rates should be reversed is an ideological project, and whether it can be reversed is currently entirely unproven. But in a short-to-medium term future in which declining birth rates are a reality, being on the right side of the evidence and clear-sighted about the consequences are urgent next steps for India.

Rukmini S is the founder of Data For India (where she leads research and writing) and a CASI Non-Resident Fellow. Her areas of focus include demography, health, and household economics. She has previously led data journalism in Indian newsrooms and is the author of Whole Numbers & Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell Us About Modern India (Westland, 2021).

The article was first published in India in Transition, a publication of the Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania.

The Goa Police on Sunday directed organisers to cancel an event titled “Tales of Kamasutra and Christmas Celebration”, which had been scheduled to be held in December, after civil society groups and members of the Catholic community objected to it, The Indian Express reported.

The groups said that the event projected Goa as a “sex tourism” destination.

A poster for the event that detailed explicit acts sparked outrage, prompting the police to intervene.

The event was scheduled to take place between December 25 and December 28, according to the poster.

The Goa Police said that it has directed the organisers to remove the advertisements from social media. Police stations have been asked to keep an eye on upcoming events in their jurisdiction.

The poster said that the event had been organised by the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh Foundation.

Swami Dhyan Sumit, the facilitator of the event and founder of Osho Ludhiana Meditation Society, told The Indian Express that it was a “meditation retreat based on tantra”.

“In the poster, we mentioned Christmas celebration with the intention that festivals…are for celebration,” the newspaper quoted him as saying. “It has been portrayed incorrectly as something indecent was being organised. It was a retreat for meditation.”

Sumit added: “We got a call from the authorities that sentiments of the Catholic community have been hurt, so we have decided to cancel the event and withdraw all the posters.”

Sumit was quoted as saying that the poster having the words Kamasutra and Christmas celebration together had led some people to misunderstand that there would be sexual activities. “It’s not like that, and moreover, it’s based on a meditation spiritual retreat,” he said.

He apologised that the “combination of these two words gave the wrong message and hurt the feelings of local people”.

Several citizens’ groups urged the police to stop the event.

The Goa Women’s Forum on Saturday wrote to the tourism department saying that the event “will project Goa as a sex tourism destination and severely affect the image of Goa as a family tourist destination”, The Indian Express reported.

The forum demanded that a first information report be registered in the matter.

Arun Pandey, the founder and director of Arz, a non-governmental organisation working against sexual violence, said on Saturday that he had filed a complaint with the Goa crime branch.

“It is really unfortunate that in the name of Osho, Christmas, meditation......Goa is being advertised as sex destination!” he said on social media.

A police complaint was also filed by the Catholic Association of Goa against the organisers of the event for allegedly hurting the sentiments of the community, the newspaper reported.

A Delhi court on Monday sent five persons to two-day judicial custody in a case registered against them for allegedly using pepper spray on police personnel while being removed from a protest against worsening air pollution in the national capital, PTI reported.

Judicial Magistrate Aridaman Singh Cheema also sent another person to an observation home under the Juvenile Justice Act while his age is being verified.

The students had been detained for allegedly obstructing and assaulting the police personnel during the demonstration at the India Gate, the news agency quoted an unidentified police officer as saying.

They also allegedly blocked a road, the police officer was quoted as saying.

“The situation then turned into a scuffle, and some protesters used pepper spray on our personnel, which is unusual and rare,” the officer was quoted as having alleged.

A first information report has been registered against them under sections of the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita pertaining to assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty, voluntarily causing hurt, obstructing public servants in discharge of duties and disobedience to a lawful order from a public servant, PTI reported.

Delhi | A protest was held this evening at C Hexagon, India Gate, over pollution. But the protesters were holding posters of Maoist commander Madvi Hidma (who was recently killed in the encounter). When they tried to block the road, the police tried to remove them, but they… https://t.co/fNMeaffsFb

— ANI (@ANI) November 23, 2025

Air quality deteriorates sharply in the winter months in Delhi, which is often ranked the world’s most polluted capital.

Stubble burning in Punjab and Haryana, vehicular pollution, along with the lighting of firecrackers during Diwali, falling temperatures, decreased wind speeds and emissions from industries and coal-fired plants contribute to the problem.

Delhi-NCR AQI

The Air Quality Index at 19 of the 39 monitoring stations in Delhi on Monday recorded readings above 400, categorised as “severe”, showed the Sameer application, which provides hourly updates published by the Central Pollution Control Board, at 11.05 am.

Despite restrictions to curb pollution, Delhi’s average AQI stood at 394, placing it at the higher end of the “very poor” category, the data showed.

An index value between 0 and 50 indicates “good” air quality, between 51 and 100 indicates “satisfactory” air quality and between 101 and 200 indicates “moderate” air quality. As the index value increases further, air quality deteriorates. A value of 201 and 300 means “poor” air quality, while between 301 and 400 indicates “very poor” air.

Between 401 and 450 indicates “severe” air pollution, while anything above the 450 threshold is termed “severe plus”.

An Air Quality Index in the “severe” category signifies hazardous pollution levels that can pose serious risks even to healthy individuals.

In areas adjoining the national capital, Ghaziabad recorded the most severe pollution levels with an AQI of 426, followed by Noida, which logged 407. Greater Noida also reported a nearly “very poor” air quality with an index of 394.

In Haryana, Gurugram registered an AQI of 287, placing it in the “poor” category, while Faridabad recorded an AQI of 236.

Delhi has been recording air quality in the “poor” or worse categories since mid-October, leading to Stage 3 restrictions under the Graded Response Action Plan being imposed on November 11.

GRAP is a set of incremental anti-pollution measures that are triggered to prevent further worsening of air quality once it reaches a certain threshold in the Delhi-NCR region.

On Saturday, the Commission for Air Quality Management added a few Stage 4 measures of the GRAP to the Stage 3 restrictions already in force. The revision was aimed at making the plan more stringent to prevent further deterioration of air quality in the region, the panel said.

This came after the Supreme Court, during a hearing on Wednesday, directed the commission to take proactive steps in consultation with stakeholders to check rising pollution levels in Delhi-National Capital Region.

Also read: Why air quality numbers in Delhi vary widely

On a bright Saturday afternoon, Rafique, who goes by his first name, is busy counting the bullet cartridges in his left pouch. Rafique is a forest watcher with the Uttar Pradesh Wildlife Department. He also works as a designated shooter when required. This time, he has been deployed in Balrajpurva and nearby villages with a grim task: to hunt down and kill the animals, believed to be wolves, that are behind a series of recent attacks on humans, including children.

These attacks have been taking place across a dozen of the villages and hamlets in the Bahraich district. As of October 21, allegedly six humans, including an elderly couple, have been killed and more than 20 people have been attacked since September 9. While many suspect the animals to be wolves, experts are disputing the claim.

“We have orders to shoot wolves on sight and have so far killed three of the six wolves,” Divisional Forest Officer Ajit Singh told Mongabay-India. The senior wildlife officer, currently posted in Ghazipur, has been temporarily deployed to manage the situation, as he had led a similar operation in 2024 in another part of the Bahraich district. He said that during that time, two wolves were killed and five were captured.

It is pertinent to note that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had ordered either to catch the wolf responsible for the recent attacks or call shooters to eliminate it for public safety.

“I am not blaming the wolves for attacking the humans,” Singh said. “What I have observed appears linked to extensive human encroachment into the wolves’ natural habitat. Proper research is needed to determine why these incidents are repeating, as such incidents happened last year as well.”

“Based on my observation, it appears that the heavy human encroachment in the wildlife area where these wolves reside is a major contributing factor to the attacks. Floods or even heat could be a reason behind this. Yet, we need proper research to find out the exact cause, as it happened last year as well,” the senior wildlife officer said about the recurring situation.

In India, changing weather and climate patterns are increasing human-wildlife conflict. According to a report by Wildlife SOS, rising temperatures and unpredictable rainfall are disrupting the breeding and migration of animals, although there is no specific India-based literature available to discuss the impact on wolves.

Fear returns to villages

Post September 9, when the spate of attacks started, the residents of over 40 villages have been spending sleepless nights guarding their homes and family members from wildlife attacks, which they are witnessing for the first time in their lifetime. Some of the families have made a makeshift scaffolding while all the male members keep a stick or a lance (a heavy nail attached to one end of the stick). The families are scared to send their children to school, and many parents resort to sitting outside the school, guarding their children at all times.

Indal Chauhan, 28, a resident of Balrajpurva, who has been working as a daily wage earner in Surat, Gujarat, has returned to his village due to concerns about wildlife attacks. “I received a phone call from my wife on September 10 when she told me about the attack by wolves, and then I decided to return home as there is nothing more precious than the life of my family members,” he said. Soon after returning, Indal Chauhan got a spoke wheel of a bicycle welded to a four-foot-long iron rod and walked with that. He said, “A few days ago I saw a wolf sitting under the charpoy in an attempt to catch prey, but I saw him and I ran towards him. He was lucky to have fled my attack.”

“My expenses have increased because for just two kilometres I have to now get a school van for both my children. I cannot risk sending them to school on foot or by bicycle, but this is the reality. Our mental health has also gone for a toss because we do not sleep properly, and there is a fear of wolf attack on us all the time,” he added.

Divisional Forest Officer Singh said that the villagers have been given cracker bombs by the wildlife department after an elderly couple was mauled to death by wild animals on the intervening night of September 9-10. They have been regularly combing the sugarcane fields along with doing a round-the-clock surveillance through thermal screening-based drones. Members of the wildlife department were also attacked by the villagers, who were irked by the mauling of the elderly couple.

“We have been urging villagers not to let children sleep outside and to prevent them from going out after nightfall,” said Divisional Forest Officer Singh, noting that homes in the area have few doors, making it easier for wild animals to slip inside.

He explained, “Normally, wolves don’t attack humans. It is difficult to say why this is happening…” He pointed out there had been no similar attacks in decades. The last such situation was nearly 20 years ago when wolf had allegedly killed 32 children across Gonda, Bahraich, and Balrampur districts.

Range Officer, Bahraich, Mohammad Saqib, said the attacks are concentrated in the Ghaghra floodplain, where plentiful water, tall sugarcane, and grasslands, alongside intense heat and rain, have delayed rescue operations.

A shifting habitat

One of the most remarkable traits of the Indian grey wolf is its ability to coexist with humans. Over 70% of its population lives outside India’s protected areas, inhabiting human-dominated landscapes. However, this coexistence comes at a cost. The rapid decline of grasslands has led to a decline in populations of native prey species, such as the chinkara and blackbuck, forcing wolves to rely heavily on livestock, including goats and sheep.

The data on wolves in India remains insufficient. But a 2022 study found that the country’s wolf population could be as small as 2,568 to 3,847, making wolves more endangered than tigers.

Wildlife expert and a professor in the zoology department at Lucknow University, Amita Kanaujia linked the wolves’ aggression to habitat loss from flooding, which forces them to search for food near human settlements. “Indian grey wolves are found extensively in the Terai region. A recent report indicated their numbers exceed a hundred in Lakhimpur and Pilibhit, which neighbour Bahraich,” Kanaujia says.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) Sanjay Srivastava offered another perspective. “The rainy season has flooded the forests, driving wild animals out in search of food. They’re hunting whatever they find near the forest edge,” Srivastava says.

Conservationists debate the cause of this unexpected behaviour of what are believed to be wolves, animals that are distinctly shy of humans. YV Jhala, former dean of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), suggested that this spate of attacks is owed to hybridisation: dog-wolf hybrids.

Wildlife biologist Saheer Khan, who is associated with WII as project scientist, recalled the uncertainty and confusion that marked the aftermath of the attacks in Bahraich.

“Last year, when these were happening, I spent about a month on the ground, so I was familiar with the pattern of events,” says Khan. This year, however, health issues prevented him from undertaking fieldwork, although the local forest department sought his expertise remotely. “They sent me pictures of injuries, asking for help in identifying the culprit. I received about 45 images, but none bore the typical hallmarks of a wolf attack,” he observes. Khan explains that wolves usually target children, biting at the neck to drag their prey. “These injuries, mostly deep wounds to the chest and hands, didn’t fit that pattern,” Khan says.

Missing scientific proof

Khan highlights a critical gap in investigation: “I asked them to collect swab samples from attack victims for genetic analysis, which is the only way to confirm if wolves were responsible. But those samples haven’t reached research labs like the Wildlife Institute of India.”

Misinformation is rife, he adds. “People sometimes report scratches – from sticks, even dogs – as wolf attacks. Actual wolf attacks are rare compared to the high number of reported cases.”

According to Khan, the area has a significantly larger population of feral dogs and jackals than wolves, which increases the likelihood of misidentification. “People are on edge – almost every animal sighted is suspected to be a wolf. Drone footage does confirm wolves in the landscape, but we can’t say all these incidents are caused by them,” he notes. Wolves, he explains, typically hunt young children, often dragging them away, and avoid adults when possible.

He also mentioned the challenge of correctly identifying hybrid animals in ongoing cases. “Some individuals seen in recent years don’t resemble hybrids, though there’s always that possibility. Often, the blame lands on wolves when the reality is more complex.”

Khan stressed the rarity of such incidents in Uttar Pradesh and across India, despite wolf populations being at risk. “Recent state assessments show about 3,300 wolves remain. Attacks on humans are infrequent, with rabid wolves sometimes responsible for a brief spell of aggression before succumbing to the disease, much like rabid dogs.”

“The way forward is scientific: genetic testing of swabs from injured individuals to establish if a wolf, jackal, leopard, or another species was responsible. Without that, fear and speculation will continue to drive misunderstanding and conflict,” Khan concluded.

He stated that he had recommended collecting and sending swabs to the Indian Veterinary Research Institute or another institute for testing both last year and this year.

Mongabay-India reached out to Indian Veterinary Research Institute Bareilly, and a senior official stated that they have no knowledge of what is happening and have not been approached yet by any relevant department. The official requested anonymity to steer clear of any controversy.

As the sun sets over Bahraich’s sugarcane fields, villagers light small fires near their homes, hoping to keep the wolves – or whatever predator lurks in the darkness – away. But for wildlife biologists, the real threat lies elsewhere: in the absence of science guiding the state’s response.

“Wolves have survived in India’s shared landscapes for centuries,” says biologist Saheer Khan. “What’s changed is not the animal, but the land and our fear of it.”

This article was first published on Mongabay.