For nearly a decade, the database at Land Conflict Watch has carried a certain bleakness. It is a cold, hard accounting of the costs of resource extraction, the toll “development” takes on the most vulnerable, and the ugly consequences of unchecked private consumption. Within this grim arithmetic of over 1,095 mapped land conflicts, one statistic stands out: nearly 80% of these disputes occur over common lands .
Persistent caste discrimination , the marginalisation of Dalits , concerns over the rights of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples , and the treatment of religious and ethnic minorities are among the issues flagged by the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in its latest observations on India.