Annie Banerji

India's top court is expected to decide on Monday whether to cancel the results of a college medical entrance exam and order a re-sit after the competitive test was hit by a wave of allegations, including that the paper was leaked.

More than 2.4 million people took the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test (Undergraduate), or NEET-UG, in May, competing for more than 100,000 spots in government and private colleges.

For more than four years, Sanna had the same daily routine - wake up at dawn, study up to 14 hours a day, eat and sleep - all in an effort to crack a tough exam to get into one of India's premier public medical colleges.

But after two unsuccessful attempts, she has lost hope she can win a highly sought-after spot, especially after the national entrance exam was hit last month by allegations of irregularities, including paper leaks. 

The death of an Indian farm labourer in a gruesome machine accident in Italy is "just the tip of the iceberg" when it comes to the exploitation of migrant workers by rich Western nations, United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, Tomoya Obokata, said.

Satnam Singh died in a hospital in Rome last month, two days after his right arm was severed by machinery in a melon greenhouse where he worked close to the Italian capital.

As a scorching heatwave grips northern India, tens of thousands of people in Delhi have to cut back on showers, laundry and washing dishes because of a shortage of water.

With little to no piped water in many areas of Delhi, dozens of especially low-income neighbourhoods rely on tankers due to an acute water shortage the government blames on low levels in the Yamuna River - the capital city's primary source of water.

Starved and locked in a room under round-the-clock video surveillance, Dinabandhu Sahu spent sleepless nights wondering if he would ever again see his family back home in India after he was duped into a job scam in Cambodia.

Sahu jumped at the chance to earn $900 a month in Vietnam as a data entry operator with free meals and accommodation last June after working a string of short-lived jobs in similar fields which paid a fraction of the wage he was promised abroad.

To go back home in eastern India, cast his vote and spend time with his wife and three children would be ideal, said Shafiq Ansari, but he cannot afford to lose wages and so has to keep toiling under the sweltering summer sun near New Delhi.

Ansari is far from alone. Many millions of migrant workers across India face a similar dilemma as voting takes place in the world's biggest election, with nearly 1 billion people eligible to vote until June 1. Results are due by June 4, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi predicted to win a rare third term.

India's two main parties are pledging to improve life for LGBTQ+ people if they win a general election that starts on Friday, but campaigners say they are paying lip service to gay and trans rights by dodging the key issue of same-sex marriage.

Despite progress on LGBTQ+ rights, same-sex relations remain taboo in India and many LGBTQ+ people hide their identity for fear of discrimination. Last year, the Supreme Court declined to legalise gay marriage in a major setback to equality gains.

In Sumit Bhanwala's village in northern India, pictures of the Statue of Liberty adorn facades and tractors display stars and stripes bumper stickers - a way to let neighbours know that sons, brothers and nephews have made it to the United States.

For 25-year-old Bhanwala, the images are a source of inspiration as he prepares for an arduous, months-long journey to sneak across the U.S. border - an odyssey that will cost his family tens of thousands of dollars in fees to people smugglers.

Hobbling out of a tuk-tuk, Pooja Gupta joined fellow community health workers as they punched their fists in the air and chanted slogans against authorities in India who, they say, pay poorly despite giving them more and more work to do.

Like Gupta, tens of thousands of female health workers across South Asia are demanding basic rights and social protections that are currently denied to them such as the minimum wage, sick leave, maternity benefits and pensions.

A new law reserving 33% of seats for women in India's parliament will likely lead to more female-friendly policies on jobs, health and education, lawmakers and campaigners said, pointing to village councils which have had the quota for 30 years.

Lawmakers in India's upper house of parliament on Thursday passed the landmark bill a day after it was approved by the lower house. Six attempts to clear the bill had failed since it was first introduced in 1996.