A war has broken out in some parts of east-central India, especially some regions of the Dandakaranya forests that span across the states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Andhra Pradesh. Reportedly, there are thousands of Maoist guerrillas armed with sophisticated weapons confronting a vast array of paramilitary forces assembled by the government of India. Caught in the crossfire are millions of poor, marginalised and historically isolated adivasis. Their habitat, in which...

Pune : The state government’s exercise to map schools in the state to determine distribution as per population to make it easier to determine the number of schools and where they should be located to suit the Right to Education (RTE) Act targets has completed the second stage. As per the survey released on Monday, Pune district needs around 200 more schools as of now. There is a need of around...

The UT Administration might be congratulating itself over its achievement of having implemented the Right to Education Act (RTE) in the city but the actual situation in schools leaves much to be desired. The lack of basic infrastructure, including seating arrangements and classrooms, is defeating the basic purpose of the Act. The Government High School, Mauli Jagran, is one such school in the city that is bursting at its seam...

In government schools in the villages, teachers rarely turn up. They collect their monthly salaries and pay a part of it to Basic Shiksha Adhikari for marking false attendance. Medicines are diverted to the black market before they reach government hospitals. Poor people are turned away when they go to hospitals. There is endless corruption in the work done by various panchayats. Rations meant for people living in extreme poverty...

-IANS   Bihar's literacy rate may be the lowest in the country at 63.8 percent, but it could achieve total literacy in about two decades like the rest of India, predicts a new report. During the past decade, the literacy rate in Bihar has increased by 17 percent, much faster compared to nine percent for the entire country, the report points out. "If Bihar is able to maintain its present momentum in educational...