-The Hindu Let us begin by listening to Mira’s story. When I learnt that I have been granted admission in the college of my choice, fear of being part of the “rest of the world” gripped me. Though confident about my academic abilities, I was terrified at the thought of how the “others” would react to me: a cerebral palsy wheelchair user with a speech difficult to comprehend and a drooling mouth....

-DNA Mumbai has more undernourished children under the age of five than the whole of urban Maharashtra. Experts say malnutrition is prevalent amongthe slum dwellers, migrant labours and the city’s minority communities. A recent report on malnutrition, titled ‘India’s nutrition crisis: A challenge of putting nutrition back in our food’ by Narotam Sekhasaria Foundation, an NGO, reveals that more than half of the country’s upcoming generation— children under four years of age...

-ANI Food Minister K.V. Thomas on Wednesday said that the proposed National Food Security Bill marks a paradigm shift in addressing the problem of food security - from it being viewed as a welfare approach to a right-based approach. Launching the bulletin on food justice in India brought out by the Oxfam India, the institute of development studies and the centre for legislative research and advocacy here, Thomas said: "The Act seeks...

ASHAs will continue to bear the burden of the government's rural health mission as a new order lists more incentive-based services. On May 31, a Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare order listed additional incentivised duties for accredited social health activists, or ASHAs, but was silent on the issue of regularisation of their employment. ASHAs, who bridge the gap between the rural population and the nearest health care outlets under...

-IANS Over two years after the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE) was notified by the central government , more than 95% of schools in the country do not comply with its guidelines, a study by an NGO has found. Data compiled by RTE Forum with inputs from its members from across the country points out that only one out of 10 schools in 2010-11 had drinking...