The Guinness Book of world record would have been happy to include this feat by a surgeon on January 7 in Bihar's Araria district - 53 sterilization operations on females in two hours with the help of unqualified Staff in Kaparfora Government Middle School that did not have basic amenities like running water or sterilizing equipment. Instead, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Union and state governments on...

On Saturday last, as the government was highlighting with much fanfare the achievements under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 in the past two years, the RTE Division of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) — entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the implementation of the Act — was virtually winding up. It all happened as the term of Kiran Bhatty, the...

The Supreme Court today sought the stands of the Centre and various state governments on a plea alleging sterilisation surgeries on women under torchlight, in various places, specially in Bihar, in gross violation of the medical and ethical norms. A bench of justices R M Lodha and H L Gokhale issued notices to the Centre and various states and sought their replies within eight weeks on a public interest litigation by...

-The Times of India   Outsourcing Staff of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS), who have been on strike for the past one week, have called off their stir following an assurance by MNREGS minister D Manikya Vara Prasad to take a considerate view of the issues raised by them during the cabinet sub-committee meeting on April 3.  The strike since March 24 has affected the livelihood of thousands of poor...

This month, two women’s stories, told courageously, helped to underline the reality of domestic violence in India. Nita Bhalla, a journalist, wrote for the BBC about being physically assaulted by her partner. Meena Kandasamy, a poet and writer on social issues, wrote movingly in Outlook, a national newsmagazine, of surviving a violent marriage: “My skin has seen enough hurt to tell its own story.” Both Ms. Kandasamy and Ms. Bhalla are,...