Counterview

By A V Yadappanavar*  For decades, the dominant policy mandate across South India was aggressive population control, a relentless push to curb soaring birth rates. Today, that narrative has undergone a profound and ironic reversal. Having been remarkably successful in stabilizing its demographic growth, the region now finds itself pivoting toward population conservation and care. The very success of its past policies has birthed a new, complex challenge: managing a rapidly aging society and a shrinking youth base.

By Rosamma Thomas   At Divine Public School in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, a Class 2 student suddenly collapsed and died after reportedly experiencing severe distress as loud music from a passing Ganesh procession played outside the school. The incident was reported on Monday, September 21, 2026. Just days later, on September 23, students of St Thomas College, Pala, Kerala, brought a large music system mounted on a truck to the college entrance, with disco lights blazing in the middle of the day. The students were associated with the Congress-affiliated student politics in the state. The music was extremely loud, despite the college being situated in a neighbourhood where several residents are senior citizens. There are also several Brilliant Pala student hostels in the vicinity. The loud music, accompanied by what appeared to be sexually suggestive hip-swaying dancing, seemed intended, at least in part, to attract new members to the political organisation. This reporter...

By Vikas Meshram*  For years, people in Anandpuri block of Rajasthan’s Banswara district had to travel nearly 25 kilometres to reach a weekly haat bazaar. For families who depend largely on farming and daily wage labour, the journey was more than an inconvenience. It meant spending money on transport, losing an entire day and, for small sellers, sometimes spending more to reach the market than they earned from their produce.

By A Representative   Vancouver, Washington-based Columbia nd Gem House has announced a unique international initiative to raise funds for the Vadodara-based advocacy group People's Training and Research Centre (PTRC), which been supporting victims of the fatal occupational disease silicosis in Gujarat for decades.

By A Representative   With World Contraception Day observed on September 26 and International Safe Abortion Day on September 28, global health and gender rights advocates have called for urgent action to ensure universal access to contraception and safe abortion services, warning that progress towards health and gender equality goals remains dangerously off track.

By Bharat Dogra  The number of chickens and poultry birds worldwide exceeds three times the human population. Each one possesses the capacity to feel pain and acute discomfort, just as humans do. Yet they are routinely subjected to extreme cruelty in factory farm conditions and during transit. The familiar phrase "as free as birds" has lost all meaning for chickens; more apt analogies might be "as caged as a chicken in a factory farm" or "as degraded as a factory farm chicken."

​By Lohit Sharma*  ​For decades, the turbulent waters of Arunachal Pradesh’s river valleys have mirrored the simmering unrest along their banks. From the Siang to the Subansiri and the Dibang, the state’s relentless pursuit of mega-hydropower has pitted central infrastructure targets against the lived realities of indigenous communities. What planners in New Delhi and Itanagar view merely as untapped gigawatts, local inhabitants revere as sacred rivers, ancestral homelands, and delicate riverine ecosystems. Yet, as legitimate grassroots resistance to these colossal projects mounts, democratic dialogue is increasingly being replaced by the coercive machinery of the state.

By Neha Desai  The renewed protests against large hydropower projects in Arunachal Pradesh, particularly the proposed 11,000-MW Siang Upper Multipurpose Project (SUMP), are being driven by a combination of environmental concerns, indigenous land rights, questions over consultation and the sheer scale of the state’s planned hydropower expansion.

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  The history of tribal leaders' sacrifices for the nation's freedom, spanning 1857 to 1947, is a revolutionary chapter of Indian history. The story of India's freedom struggle is not confined to the battles fought in big cities, capitals, and among political leadership alone — it is equally the history of countless battles fought in forests, mountains, and villages, where tribal communities gave everything they had to protect their land, forests, culture, self-respect, and freedom.