-The Hindu     Gaps between Muslims and the national average on most human development outcomes are narrowing, reflecting their improving condition The Prime Minister's high-level Sachar Committee, which analysed the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India - based on data for the 1990s, concluded that Muslims were doing much worse than the rest of the population on most social indicators. Here, we examine how the socio-economic indicators of Muslims...

-The Hindu     While the stagnation in women's ability to control their own fate is disappointing, some of the other gender indicators are downright alarming On International Women's Day, the Election Commission of India held a special campaign to bring women voters to the polls. Although men and women vote at a more or less similar rate in State elections, women are 6-8 percentage points behind in the Lok Sabha elections where national...

-IANS About 65 percent of Class 3 children are able to listen and respond to language correctly and 86 percent are able to recognise a given picture, Human Resource Development Minister M.M. Pallam Raju said here Friday. "About 65 percent of the children were able to listen and respond correctly and about 86 percent of the students were able to recognize a given picture," he said citing a survey. "In mathematics, 70 percent...

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Probably, this can be said about the ‘Sample Registration System Statistical Report 2012', which carries the latest figures on the social sector by far. The report has provided some interesting trends in child mortality indicators for India and its bigger states during 2012 (see the links below). It says that states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, which have consistently...

-The Hindu     The 13.1 per cent rate of unemployment in the 15-24 years age-group globally is more than twice that among the adult population. With one million more young people joining the ranks of the jobless in 2013, the world's youth are facing a disproportionate burden, says the latest report of the International Labour Organisation. The Global Employment Trends report 2014 also records slow progress of late in reducing levels of vulnerable...