-The Deccan Herald   Eight-year-old Divya says she wants to study but her school does not provide basic facilities such as books, clean water, food and furniture.  “There are insects crawling on our food and the water smells like dead rat. Most of the desks in our school are broken. How can we study in a school which is not clean?” asked Divya, studying in Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, Shakarpur, east Delhi. Divya added...

Is the majority of India veg or non-veg? Well, contrary to impression, the land of Gandhi and Buddha is predominantly non-veg. It may well have been majority vegetarian country at some point of time but the new trend is that more and more people are taking to non-vegetarian diets. A new policy paper, “Veg or Non-Veg? India at the Crossroads,” published by Brighter Green, a New York-based public policy action...

-The Times of India    Rashmi Bansal, a student of Activity High School scored 80% in her ICSE examinations in 2007. What differentiated Rashmi's performance from others was that she achieved it without the aid of tuitions. Coming from a family of modest means that was unable to lend much financial support, it was her school that honed her skills and paved the way for her success.  "We have always gone the extra...

The hunger and malnutrition situation in the country has shown marginal improvement, according to the HUNGaMA report. ONE area that has always bothered policymakers in a growth-obsessed economy is the state of the social sector, in particular figures indicating the numbers of people going hungry or are homeless and children who are out of school, the poor nutritional status of women and children, and the high infant and maternal mortality rates....

When the Right to Education Act was enforced in April 2010, it looked like millions of schoolchildren could dare to dream. The Act guarantees access to schools, a target that has been met, with the enrolment rate at 90% among children in first grade. The Act demands schools to meet certain requirements, including infrastructure (building, libra-ry, kitchen, toilets), teacher-student ratio, teaching hours etc. However, far from helping improve the situation,...