The Bengal government could have ensured a monthly scholarship of Rs 500 for nearly 22,000 poor schoolchildren in the state over the past three years, without any damage to its own pocket. Instead, it chose to help just about 3,000 get the scholarship.The National Means-Cum-Merit Scholarship, launched in 2008-09, looks to benefit about one lakh Class IX students every year. The State Bank of India pays the entire sum, which...

Two Adivasi student organisations today burnt the effigies of Assam water resources minister Prithvi Majhi, Lok Sabha MP Joseph Toppo and Rajya Sabha MP Silvius Condopan, all hailing from their community, in protest against the trio’s “silence” over the eviction drive at Ripu-Chirang reserve forest. The All Adivasi Students Association of Assam and the All Santhali Students Union alleged that the leaders were indifferent to the plight of the community. They...

Every afternoon at about four, a slight woman named Runi slips out of the cramped, airless room that she shares with her husband and their sixteen children. She skirts the drainage ditch in front of the building, then walks toward the pile of hardened dung cakes that people in this slum on the edge of the northeastern Indian city of Patna use for fuel. Dressed in a bright-yellow sari shot...

While renewable energy was always considered more desirable from the point of view of environment protection, its importance has increased several times in these times of climate change. Solar energy is particularly seen as a very promising source in energy planning for the future in tropical countries like India. Interest in realising the potential of solar energy is fast increasing and organisations which have been pioneers in solar energy are...

“Inside the mine everything is very fragile. Even the falling of a small rock can cause death sometimes. People from outside cannot imagine what the hell is inside the mine!” These are the words of 16-year old Muzzammal Haque who works in a coal mine in the Jaintia Hills, Meghalaya. He is yet another example of the bonded child labour in the various coal mines in the Jaintia Hills on...