-The Hindustan Times The December 16 gang rape, which rocked the country last year, had raised questions on the loopholes in policing across the country. However, what escaped attention was the crippling lack of infrastructure that leads to insecurity among the city's women. A lot was promised soon after the horrific incident, but very little has been done yet. NGOs working for the welfare of women have highlighted how our urban planning,...

-The Hindu EDI in District Information System for Education released Bangalore: The State stands fifth in the Composite Educational Development Index (EDI) contained in the recent District Information System for Education (DISE) 2012-2013 provisional report. Last year, the State had secured three ranks higherthan this. This year, the EDI is 0.661. EDI is calculated using a set of 24 indicators under four sub-groups such as access, infrastructure, teachers and outcome indicators. The data...

-The Telegraph Lucknow: The laptops are piling, the classrooms are empty. The Akhilesh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh government today indicated it was ready to shift gears and focus on tackling alarming school dropout rates after being slammed over misplaced priorities and cash-guzzling populist schemes like free laptops. The issue was raised by a Congress legislator, Pramod Tiwari. BJP MLAs soon followed suit, drawing the government’s attention to the large number of dropouts at the...

-The Telegraph Ranchi: The lid is off a basic reason why generations of girls drop out of school, never discovering their potential. Schools, state-run or otherwise, may have a toilet, but if existing loos lack basics such as privacy or water, girls prefer to stay at home. Reason - they feel too unsafe and ashamed to answer nature's call or take care of personal hygiene during menstruation. A detailed research on life skills...

-Newsclick.in Recent studies have shown that even as India fares better than many developing regions of the world on several indicators of growth and development such as GDP, per capita, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), literacy, life expectancy, etc., the number of malnourished children in India is significantly high. What explains this paradox? The Union Cabinet recently approved a multi-sectoral nutritional programme proposed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to reduce...