-The Hindu In a far-reaching decision, the Rajasthan government has announced that a person below 18 years will be considered as a child labourer if he or she is employed. Accepting the long-pending demand of child rights groups, the government announced a comprehensive standard operating procedure (SOP) for identification, rescue, protection and rehabilitation of children employed in various occupations. The decision has come as a major triumph for advocacy groups seeking the abolition...

-The Hindustan Times Courts will now view the revelation of children’s identities by the media while covering criminal cases very strictly.   The Delhi high court on Wednesday tightened norms for media reporting in cases involving children. The order came keeping in mind the brazen manner in which the identity of the two-year-old battered child, who died while fighting for her life at AIIMS, and other minors involved in the case was...

-The Hindu Students turn up for classes but find errant school closed The Oxford English School on Nandini Layout, where the tuft of hair of some children admitted under the Right to Education quota for the disadvantaged children were snipped to distinguish them from the rest, remained closed on Thursday, even as protests were staged in front of it. In the morning, children who came to the school were turned away by the...

-PTI The Supreme Court on Monday expressed concern over alleged illegal clinical trial of drugs in the country, saying its "unfortunate" that humans were being treated as "guinea pigs". A bench headed by Justice R M Lodha pulled up the Centre and the Madhya Pradesh government for not filing their response on PILs alleging large-scale illegal drug trials in the state and other parts of the country. The bench said, "There has to...

-The Hindu For the first time in five days since the controversy over a class V student of Patha Bhavan in Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan, being forced to drink her urine as punishment for bed wetting erupted, the authorities have expressed their regret over the incident on Thursday. Stating that the university “unequivocally regrets the traumatic experience” of the student “at the hands of the Warden,” a press release issued by the...