The University Grants Commission has set up four committees to review educational development schemes for Scheduled Castes, scheduled tribes, minorities and women, the relook prompted by statistics that show the measures haven’t been all that effective. While the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education for all categories in 2007-08 was 13.58, the corresponding percentage for SCs was 11.62 and for STs 9.86 per cent, according to HRD ministry figures for...
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NHRC retains ‘A' status by J Venkatesan
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has received a shot in the arm by retaining its “A” status in its accreditation with the International Coordinating Committee (ICC) of the National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs), Geneva. The Accreditation Sub-Committee of the ICC-NHRIs has recommended that the NHRC be reaccredited with “A” status. The decision, taken at the session of the ICC Sub-Committee on accreditation in Geneva from May 23 to 27 was...
More »An exercise in undercounting the poor by Brinda Karat
The impending BPL Census exercise will not help the poor; on the contrary, it will further deny them a fair share in national resources. The BPL, or Below Poverty Line, Census 2011 for the rural areas will start in select States this month. In a country such as India with vast numbers of the poor, counting the poor often becomes an exercise in undercounting and dividing them, to suit the wholly...
More »Sonia to launch rural livelihood mission
-The Deccan Herald The Congress-led UPA Government is all set to re-launch its flagship rural self-employment scheme as a national mission to reach out to all the rural Below Poverty Line (BPL) families and link them to sustainable livelihood opportunities. Congress president and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi will launch the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM) at Banswara in Rajasthan on Saturday. Rural Development Minister Vilas Rao Deshmukh said that the NRLM –...
More »Sacrificial lambs by Purnima S Tripathi
Tribal people constitute close to 50 per cent of the population that has been displaced because of "developmental" activities. “IF you are to suffer, you should suffer in the interest of the country,” Jawaharlal Nehru has been quoted as telling the village residents to be displaced by the Hirakud dam in 1948. And so it has been for the past 64 years. People, mostly impoverished tribes, have been suffering because...
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