-The Hindu New Delhi: Against the backdrop of increasing violence against women and children across the country, the Union Ministry of Women and Child Development had launched the ‘Ahimsa Messenger' Programme in last August to address the critical issue at the grass roots level through creating numerous Ahimsa Messengers. The messengers would be generating awareness on basic legal rights, procedures and provisions amongst women and children; they would also serve as link...

-PTI NAGPUR: With a spurt in farmer suicides in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region posing a question of survival before their families, a vocational training centre here is trying to help children of such farmers learn technical skills and earn a livelihood. Montfort Integrated Educational Centre (MIEC) was set up with the help of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (SDTT) about two years back in Patansaongi village of Saoner taluka, about 30 kms from here,...

-The Hindu Prison statistics of the country for the year 2012 released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) last week show that 3,85,135 persons were lodged in the 1,394 jails of the country as on December 31 last, the date considered by the NCRB for tabulating the annual statistics. 95.6 per cent or 3,68,184 of the inmates were male and remaining 4.4 per cent female. During that year another 2,20,542...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com Kozhikode: Dubai's agriculture minister recently chartered a flight to Kozhikode and, accompanied by a horticulture consultant, headed to the Agriculture Research Station (ARS) at Anakkayam nearby. There the minister, Abdulla Jassim Abdulla M Almarzooqi, placed orders for fruits, spices and ornamental plants. But on his mind was something bigger. He offered free visas and air tickets to the 100 members of the research station's agricultural army, which rather grandly goes...

-The Indian Express New Delhi: As rights groups upped the ante over the sheer insensitivity displayed by Delhi Police in issuing a fund raising advertisement, "depicting a vulnerable child as a future criminal", the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) shot a notice to the Police Commissioner on Monday, demanding that the department take immediate steps to control the damage done with "the highly negative depiction of the image...