-The Hindu Laws count for nothing when some of the worst offenders are government-run bodies, agencies and enterprises. The Central government is trying to push through the Prohibition of Employment as Manual Scavengers and Their Rehabilitation Bill, 2012, under pressure from the Supreme Court; but, going by the experience of the past few decades, there is no cause to assume the dehumanising practice of manual removal of human excreta will soon...

-The Indian Express A year after it was mandated to create a database of financial crimes and issue alerts to enforcement agencies about black money, the country's top economic intelligence organisation CEIB is groping in the dark for want of good snoop information. Top sources in the Finance Ministry said the CEIB, in the last six months, has sent a number of reminders to agencies like the I-T department, ED, IB, CBI,...

-The Hindu India ranks among the lowest in the world in public spending on health, but the private spending is one of the highest. The National Sample Survey Organisation’s report (2006) shows over 35 per cent of people who are hospitalised fall below the poverty line because of the expenses that follow, and over 40 per cent have to borrow or sell assets to pay for their care. Private sector provision...

-The Hindu Imperative to collect and analyse data in such cases India calls them its future. But as lakhs of children are kidnapped across the country each year, pushed into sex or organ trade or bonded labour, precious little is being done to find and restore them to their parents. For these children, it is living through the worst nightmare. Getting lost in markets and seeing strange faces all around may put a...

-The Hindu Identification of children after tracing them poses a major hurdle for the police and other investigating agencies in reuniting them with their families. This is because many visible features such as height, weight, eye colour and complexion change very rapidly during the growing years. Over a period of time many of these characteristics and even distinguishable features such as birthmark or tattoos, key to identification, change. There is no provision...