debates on the discrimination and violence faced by Dalits in universities. In March, the police arrested students and faculty peacefully protesting at the University of Hyderabad, where Rohith Vemula had studied. In July, widespread protests broke out in Una, Gujarat state, following the public flogging of four Dalit men by a vigilante cow protection group for skinning a dead cow – a traditional occupation for certain Dalits. In April, the central government passed the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Rules, which specified relief mechanisms available to victims of caste-based violence. CHILDREN’S RIGHTS According to statistics released in August, reports of crimes against children in 2015 rose by 5% compared with the previous year. Under new laws that came into force in January, juvenile justice authorities ordered that children aged 16 to 18 be treated as adults in cases of serious crimes. In June, a juvenile justice board ordered that a 17-yearold in Delhi be tried as an adult in an alleged hit-and-run driving case. In August, another 17-year-old in Delhi was ordered to be prosecuted as an adult in a case of alleged rape. In July, Parliament amended a child labour law to prohibit the employment of children under 14, but made an exception for children working in family enterprises. The amendments also allowed children aged 14 to 18 to work in occupations that were not “hazardous”. Many child rights activists opposed the amendments, which they said would encourage child labour and disproportionately affect children from marginalized groups and girls. In August, the central government released a draft national education policy, which made no mention of human rights education. COMMUNAL AND ETHNIC VIOLENCE Vigilante cow protection groups harassed and attacked people in states including Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka in 184 the name of upholding laws prohibiting the killing of cows. In March, the bodies of two Muslim cattle traders were found hanging from a tree in Jharkhand. In June, members of a cow protection group in Haryana forced two Muslim men, who they suspected were beef transporters, to eat cow dung. In August, a woman in Haryana said that she and her 14year-old cousin were gang-raped by men who accused them of eating beef. In May, the High Court of Bombay, hearing a case on a beef ban law, ruled that preventing people from consuming a particular type of food could violate their right to privacy. A team formed to reinvestigate closed cases related to the 1984 Sikh massacre identified 77 cases for further investigation and invited people to testify. The functioning of the team continued to lack transparency. Black people faced racist harassment, discrimination and violence in various cities. In February, a Tanzanian woman was stripped and beaten by a mob in Bengaluru, Karnataka state. In May, a man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo was beaten to death by a group of men in New Delhi. CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY In February, the Ministry of Environment approved the expansion of a coal mine in Kusmunda, Chhattisgarh state, operated by the state-owned company South Eastern Coalfields, despite authorities not having obtained the free, prior and informed consent of affected Adivasi communities. The central government continued to acquire land using the Coal Bearing Areas Act, which allows for the acquisition of Adivasi land without consent. In April, the Gujarat government amended a central land acquisition law to exempt a range of projects from seeking the consent of affected families and conducting social impact assessments. The same month, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing stated that most forced evictions occurred with impunity in India. In May, the Supreme Amnesty International Report 2016/17