-The Hindu For any law to truly liberate those trapped in manual scavenging, their numbers must first be established by a comprehensive survey Everybody declares with a full heart, and in a low voice, that it is a national shame. From Manmohan Singh and Pratibha Patil to Mukesh Ambani and Aamir Khan, the last mentioned a new convert to the Dalit cause, there is no dearth of people queuing up to take...

-The Business Standard No full stops for forcible acquisition, poor compensation Lawmakers have been tinkering with a new land acquisition regime for a cynically long number of years. However, there is no change at the ground level. The news that a displaced woman in Madhya Pradesh immolated herself last week, starting a Chita (funeral pyre) satyagraha, was buried below the fold in the last page of newspapers. Meanwhile, more and more gross...

-Outlook Only six states in the country, including Maharashtra and Kerala, are likely to achieve the Millenium Development Goal (MDG) on reducing child mortality by 2015, a report said today. Except Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal, other parts of the country are unlikely to achieve MDG 4, which aims to reduce Under-Five Mortality by two-thirds between 1990 and 2015, unless some key issues are addressed, These observations were...

-The Hindu Wrapped in a shawl turned grey from grime, the three-month-old baby girl was brought to meet this correspondent near the Taimur Nagar police post. “How do you like her,” the girl’s maternal aunt, Rahima, asked. “I know she is too skinny, so she looks horrible. But one month of proper food, and she will turn healthy. Look, her features are so sharp.” Rahima had made contact hoping to sell the...

-The Hindustan Times Arvind Kejriwal has resorted to publicly naming and shaming everyone from politicians to corporates, Anna Hazare has reignited the Jan Lokpal debates and scandals are being exposed with increasing frequency. The anti-corruption movement has gathered momentum in the last twelve months, and presumably, corrupt officials are running for shelter. Yet, according to a Hindustan Times survey, 41.2% of respondents feel that government officials are more prone to take a...