Reporters Without Orders Ep 260: India’s ‘living dead’, slash in minority affairs budget

This week, host Tanishka Sodhi is joined by Sumedha Mittal of Newslaundry and Pallavi Pundir, South Asia correspondent for Vice. 

Sumedha explains her report on how there’s been a sharp drop in budgetary allocations to the ministry of minority affairs and the impact this has on education. Educational schemes have been scrapped, she says, including the pre-matric scholarship for classes 1 to 8.

Pallavi then talks about her report on land grabbing crimes where victims are declared dead, the role played here by caste, and how the media played a major role in spotlighting this issue. The report also tells the story of Lal Bihari, who was first declared “dead” in the 1970s. Pallavi says she was “fascinated by his desperation to be taken seriously in the eyes of the law”.

Tune in.

Timecodes

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:02:03 - Budget allocation 

00:06:12 - Land of the dead

00:30:49 - Recommendations

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Produced  by Tehreem Roshan, recorded by Anil Kumar, and edited by Satish Kumar.