Maharashtra Minister launches “Save the Girl Child” campaign to curb sex-selective abortions In a packed cultural hall in Chandrapur, poor acoustics did not take away from a serious play on female foeticide. The voices of the actors went high and low as mikes were pushed hastily towards them. At the end of the play, there was a poignant appeal from an unborn girl who asked for a chance to live. On Sunday...

-The Hindu   Universalisation of secondary education in 12th Plan Education without textbooks. This is what the government is contemplating for pre-school children. “We would like to move forward, hopefully, in the next few years to bring pre-school education on the formal education agenda without formally teaching children between four and six years,'' HRD Minister Kapil Sibal told the Rajya Sabha on Friday. Replying to a question on the steps taken to extend the purview...

Monija Khatun has not got her salary as ad-hoc teacher for 17 months, youth in Soliya village in Jharkhand have got no work under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA) for the last five months and half of the newly constructed wells have collapsed in another village. These are just a few stories from a Naxal affected district of Jharkhand, where people feel alienated from the development process, even...

-FnBnews.com   The Working Group for Children Under Six (Jan Swasthya Abhiyan - Right to Food Campaign) is appalled by the scant regard for children in the draft National Food Security Bill of the Government of India that has been approved by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), according to a press note issued by the Right to Food Campaign on Monday. The note further states, "Not only does this draft do grave...

-IANS   The draft National Food Security Bill, which has been approved by the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), has scant regard for children and does not assure their right to food security, activists of the Right to Food campaign said Monday. "It appears that the government does not consider the specific issues related to the food security of children, who form about 40 percent of the population, or the vast problem...