The judgment last week by the Supreme Court, making it mandatory for the government, local authorities and private schools to reserve 25% of their seats for the economically weaker sections, is one more step in making the right to education a reality for Indian children. The road, however, is long and the journey arduous, as there are still millions who face barriers in accessing education. The Right of Children to Free...

Money from the Department for International Development has helped pay for a controversial programme that has led to miscarriages and even deaths after botched operations Tens of millions of pounds of UK aid money have been spent on a programme that has forcibly sterilised Indian women and men, the Observer has learned. Many have died as a result of botched operations, while others have been left bleeding and in agony. A...

-The Indian Express SC rightly upholds equity in private schools — now govt schools should pull their socks up The Supreme Court has upheld the Right to Education Act and its 25 per cent quota for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in all schools — public, private and in-between (except minority unaided institutions). It dismissed the petition of certain private schools, which argued that the directive to admit these children was unconstitutional,...

-IANS As many as 7,563 rape cases were reported in Jharkhand during the ten-year period since the formation of the state in November 2000, a local NGO Jharkhand Human Rights Movement (JHRM) has reported. In a report titled "Jharkhand Human Rights Report 2001-2010", the human rights group said women in the state were easy prey to crimes like rape, witchcraft and dowry. The report, released here in the form of a book,...

Officials may pocket the wage increases, but the wage level in MGNREGA seems just enough to induce workers to turn up. This year marks the sixth anniversary of the implementation of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), India's landmark right-to-work programme. The Act guarantees 100 days of paid employment to every rural household in India (up to 850 million people), regardless of eligibility criteria, and establishes the government's...