-Outlook Out in our streets, disabled people feel the pain everyday The Gaping Holes     India yet to get a cohesive, standardised sign language     Barrier-free infrastructure yet to be implemented in public areas like bus stations, railway stations, schools, cinema halls     Lack of basic, inclusive civic facilities: no audio-enabled traffic signals, pavements with ramps, few disability-friendly toilets, negligible penalties     Poor functional entertainment accessibility, like no subtitling on local language TV channels     Reservation...

-The Telegraph The Right to Education Act, which makes education a fundamental right of every child, is likely to miss the March 2013 deadline for its implementation and the government is planning to amend the law to get an extension of two years. “The amendment is being planned since the compliance to RTE norms may not be possible by the 2013 deadline,” an HRD ministry official said. However, going by the present backlog,...

-The Times of India If the proposed legislation providing reservation to SCs and STs in promotion in government jobs gets the mandatory Parliament nod, it will pave the way for filling as many as 16,864 vacancies incentral services. These vacancies were supposed to be filled through promotion to members of SC and ST community, but pendency persisted in the absence of clarity in policy.  Officials in the ministry of personnel believe that...

-The Times of India How are members of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes faring in the government hierarchy? At the very top level of the government bureaucracy, out of a total of 149 secretary-level officers, there were no SC officers while there were only 4 ST officers, as of March 2011, according to a reply given by the MoS in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy.  At the next rung of additional...

-The Hindustan Times Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said "possible solutions" are being explored to the situation created by the Supreme Court striking down Uttar Pradesh's decision to provide quota for SCs,STs and OBCs in government jobs. He made the comments at an all-party meeting convened at his residence this evening to discuss a way out in the wake of demands that a law should be enacted in this regard. "The...