-The Hindu The Marrakesh draft treaty, which will allow free distribution of books in disabled-friendly formats, is not enough by itself without a wider culture of providing for accessibility in learning Last month, delegates from around the world gathered in Marrakesh, Morocco, to sign a draft treaty of immense value to the visually handicapped and people with diverse difficulties in accessing print. The draft treaty signed at the World Intellectual Property Organisation...

-The Hindu Uttarakhand reiterates that our rulers have contemptuous disregard for the advice of the best scientists and would rather listen to contractors and builders to whom they are beholden for funds In the early 1980s, while doing research on the environmental history of Uttarakhand, I sometimes visited the Library of the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology in Dehradun. Most of the journals in the Library dealt with geology and earth sciences,...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Yet another report has criticized the government for tardy implementation of the right to education (RTE). While the three-year deadline for implementation passed in April, 11% schools are still without toilets, 20% don't have safe drinking water and 74% are without a Library. The report by the organization Child Rights and You (CRY) also states that 61% schools demand proof of age, which is not...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Don't enter the kitchen. Don't wash your hair. Don't touch that bottle of pickle. Improvements in level of education and age notwithstanding, many Indian women still end up imposing these and several other restrictions on themselves every month. The belief that the menstrual cycle renders them impure is the root cause behind such impositions. Three young entrepreneurs are now working to bring out a comic...

-The Hindu The National Commission for Women has extended its support to the ongoing campaign for allowing non-professional undergraduate women students in Aligarh Muslim University access to the Maulana Azad Library. The NCW has written to the Union Human Resource Development Ministry expressing its concern over "the gender discrimination". Faculty members and students, who have been demanding an end to the "discriminatory" practice that does not allow students from Women's College access...