-The Telegraph The Right to education Act, which makes education a fundamental right of every child, is likely to miss the March 2013 deadline for its implementation and the government is planning to amend the law to get an extension of two years. “The amendment is being planned since the compliance to RTE norms may not be possible by the 2013 deadline,” an HRD ministry official said. However, going by the present backlog,...

-The Hindu Family’s economic condition, their willingness to allow the girl child to continue studying and the literacy status of the mother were found to be among the key determinates among educationally backward families in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand that prevented girls from getting secondary education. According to a study report “The state of the girl child in India-2012’’ released here on Tuesday by non-government organisation Plan India that looked at...

-Live Mint The first in a two-part series examining the opaque world of clinical trials in India  A hospital in Indore has been able to get away with unethical medical trials in which 32 people have died over five years, according to the state government. This despite several investigations, a state government ban and Supreme Court strictures—a classic example of the lawless nature of the clinical trial business in India.   Lata Mehra, who...

-The Hindu Children form main part of workforce in Murshidabad Dolly Khatun was about five-year-old when she first handled bidis, helping her mother with odd jobs like fetching and carrying the ingredients from the village vendor and returning the finished bundles, cutting the kendu leaves into strips and counting the rolled bidis into a bunch. Within a couple of years, she was fully trained and over the past 10 years she has...

-The Hindu Calling the suggestion by Haryana’s Khap panchayats to lower the marriageable age of girls to 16 years to prevent rapes in the State as “illegal and ridiculous”, Union Minister for Women & Child Development Krishna Tirath on Monday said that education and awareness about the rights of women are the need of the hour. “We are in touch with the State Government and have asked them to assess the situation...