Three United Nations agencies are hailing what they described as a “ground-breaking” new act that legalizes the right to free and compulsory education for all children between the ages of 6 and 14 in India. The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) estimates there are eight million children in this age group, mostly girls, who are out-of-school in India. “Tens of millions of children will benefit from this initiative ensuring quality education with equity,”...
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Joining hands in the interest of children by Kapil Sibal
Today, we have reached a historic milestone in our country's struggle for children's right to education. The Constitution (86th Amendment) Act, 2002, making elementary education a Fundamental Right, and its consequential legislation, the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, comes into force today. The enforcement of this right represents a momentous step forward in our 100-year struggle for universalising elementary education. Over the years, the demand...
More »Unequal burden by Jayati Ghosh
Increased representation for women can unleash a broader process that can be set in motion by the strength of sheer numbers. One measure of whether it is important to have women in important policy formulation roles is to examine how a largely male-dominated system of government has served women. It turns out that India performs very poorly in this regard. Despite a few heartening examples to the contrary, in general Indian...
More »Tribals, Dalits still at the bottom in most indicators by Aarti Dhar
Indigenous groups and Dalits continue to be at the bottom in most indicators of well-being, the Muslims and the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) occupy the middle rung, while forward caste Hindus and other minority religions are at the top. The “Human Development in India: Challenges for a Society in Transition” survey has found this. These patterns are seen in a variety of indicators, including household incomes, poverty rates, landownership and agricultural...
More »'6.5 million homes got 100 days employment under NREGA'
Rural Development Minister C P Joshi today said only 65 lakh households had got 100 days employment under the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme though 10 crore people had got job cards when the programme was launched. "When NREGA was launched 10 crore people got job cards. Of these, 4.6 crore got work. But only 65 lakh households availed of 100 days work," Joshi said. He was speaking at...
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