-Kafila.org A Preliminary Citizens' Report September 20, 2013 A. On September 17-18, 2013, an 11 member team consisting of both independent activists as well as activists affiliated with 5 organizations based in Lucknow, Chitrakoot, Muzaffarnagar and Delhi visited relief camps in two affected districts of Muzaffarnagar (3 Relief Camps - Madrasa camp at Bassi Kalan, Madrasa camp at Tawli and camp at Haji Aala's house, Shahpur) and Shamli (3 Relief Camps -...

-The Hindu Lax monitoring, poor public engagement and inadequate training to vaccinators have dealt a serious blow to the crucial pentavalent immunisation programme The Pentavalent vaccine, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's latest addition to the immunisation programme, has run into a storm. The Supreme Court has sent a notice to the Ministry asking why the vaccine should not be banned in the country. The vaccine is no stranger to controversy. A...

Bihar Government's programme of distributing bicycles to school girls may be a modest intervention but is leading to big changes. A new research-based paper, brought out in August 2013, corroborates the success of the programme and testifies that it is leading to improved school enrollment of girls and arresting their dropout rates (See links below to read full paper and earlier studies on the subject).   Based on econometric and statistical models,...

-The Hindustan Times Mumbai: The number of missing children is constantly rising. While proper mechanism for their rehabilitation is yet to be a reality, a majority of these kids are trafficked. Areas bordering Nepal and Bangladesh are most prone to human trafficking, say reports. A study on missing and trafficked children from border areas of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar is being carried out by Gram Niyojan Kendra as part of the ‘Missing Children...

-The Times of India HUBLI (Karnataka): At least 14 students fell ill in government school in Karnataka's Dharwad district after drinking milk supplied under a government scheme on Monday. Soon after the morning prayer, students of the Kannada Government Girls' Primary school in Kusugal village queued up to have milk under 'Ksheer Bhagya' scheme. Within minutes, a girl complained of stomach pain and started vomiting. Within half an hour, 13 other students...