The largely urban, middle-class agitation led by “Team Anna” Hazare for the acceptance of a particular version of the Lokpal bill in order to end corruption in India, has raised several questions regarding the scope, legitimacy, credibility and sustainability of such protests. It has also led to some rather hasty comparisons with powerful movements in the past — including, quite unbelievably, India’s freedom struggle, arguably the biggest mass movement in...

While the Delhi government is responsible for implementing the Right to Education Act in the city, its own schools seem to be the worst offenders. Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) has received 14,752 complaints since April 1 last year when RTE was enforced. Of these, as many as 12,332 complaints were related to government and MCD schools. These complaints were either received in bulk through NGOs or...

-The Indian Express   Roughly three decades after Tamil Nadu devised the mid-day meal scheme for schoolchildren, the Jayalalithaa government is working on extending it to breakfast as well. Like neighbouring Puducherry, the state will ensure that schoolchildren are provided a healthy start to the day. Some private and corporation schools have already experimented with the idea. Tamil Nadu’s welfare schemes have been remarkably efficient because of political determination, imaginative policy-making and implementation,...

One started reading the new Draft National Land Acquisition and Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill 2011 with expectations of a great improvement over the 2007 Bills. There are indeed some very good features in the new Bill but, on the whole, one must regretfully report disappointment. Let us see how the Bill deals with some of the key issues involved. (i) Acquisition of agricultural land: The Bill rules out the acquisition, not...

The Delhi High Court today appointed an adhoc regulatory committee to examine the 2009 notification of the Delhi government which allowed schools to hike tuition and development fees. The court in its judgment on a bunch of petitions filed by various parents associations, including the Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh, also suggested to the Delhi government to constitute an expert committee which can go into the feasibility of establishing a regulatory body for...