-The Independent Hardliners defied as historic blueprint to tackle violence against girls and women is agreed at the United Nations A remarkable coalition of Conservative Muslim, Roman Catholic, and liberal Western countries have joined together to approve a historic United Nations blueprint to combat violence against women and girls. In doing so, they ignored strong objections from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood that it clashed with Islamic principles and sought to destroy the family. But...

-The Hindu ‘Need for effective time-bound grievance redressal mechanism to deal with violations that are happening on the ground’ A study on implementation of the Right to Education Act in Delhi in three years of its existence has revealed “overwhelming violations’’ of the norms on the ground. The study by NGO Josh, with support of VSO India, has noted that while “73 per cent of the schools had contract teachers’’, in 99 per...

-The Times of India MANDLA/JABALPUR: Tribals in Kundam, a settlement 40 km off Jabalpur, call it a black demon, one who strikes select families and ensures an early and agonizing death by sucking its victims white. For once, medical experts couldn't agree more with this home spun wisdom that aptly describes sickle cell - an incurable genetic disorder which damages vital organs like liver, kidney, heart and spleen. The disease manifest at...

-The Telegraph Sex offenders in prison often find themselves positioned on the lowest rungs of a hierarchy of inmates, which exposes them to particularly bad Treatment from fellow prisoners, psychologists who have studied jail violence have said. They say the phenomenon is believed to be widespread and, in some countries, has prompted law-enforcement authorities to segregate sex offenders from other inmates in prisons where they are viewed as vulnerable to physical attacks. Delhi...

-The Hindu Whether it is suicide or homicide, the death of Ram Singh — the main accused in the Delhi rape case of December 2012 — inside Tihar Jail is a damning indictment of the functioning of the prison authorities. There were warning signals, early on. Ram Singh and the other accused were put on special watch, or suicide watch, after they stopped interacting with other inmates. But despite the checks...