-The Hindu Mega residential schools are herding in large numbers of tribal children, ‘mainstreaming’ them RATher than preserving their language and heritage Tasvir, a young poet-author at Muskaan, a learning centre in Bhopal, tells us how writing can be used to empower his historically stigmatised community: “Pardhis have a rich history. But the way others label us today is wrong. I believe we should start writing and publish our stories. Our lives...

-The Hindu Study highlights the socio-economic impact of accidents There are more fatalities from road crashes among poor families RATher than the rich shows a new World Bank study that highlights the socio-economic impact of road accidents — from access to post-accident medical care to coping with the financial distress caused by a mishap. In the study, low income households reported twice the numbers of deaths post-crash vis-à-vis high income households. The risk...

-The Hindu India’s leaders must recommit themselves to the ideas and activism of environmentalists involved with Uttarakhand Following flash floods at Chamoli in Uttarakhand, defence personnel are looking for missing persons in a mélange of rock, mud, water, and debris, airlifting RATions to inaccessible villages, and repairing bridges and telecommunication networks. Social scientists are assessing the disaster’s impact on the region’s economy. Scientists and policy makers are debating whether climate change or...

-The Hindu Despite official policy, OBC, SC and ST applicants less likely to gain admission as compared to those from General Categories Chennai: Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe applicants are half as likely to get selected for a Ph.D. programme at leading IITs in the country as aspirants from the General Category (GC) are. Data collated from a series of RTI applications, including from The Hindu, on the number of applicants versus the...

-Down to Earth The cumulative effect of hydropower projects projects has turned out to be more environmentally damaging than sustainable, given the current policy of the Uttarakhand govt Human activities profoundly affect the earth’s climate and mountains are a sensitive indicator of that effect. The mountain ecosystem is easily disrupted by variations in climate owing to their altitude, slope and orientation to the sun. Several scientists believe that the change occurring in the...