The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE), in effect since April 2010, was a much debated piece of legislation, which, not surprisingly, came under attack from various quarters. Proponents of ‘low-cost’ private schools felt that it imposed an unnecessary burden in terms of infrastructural norms on schools.  Since 2010, Assessment Survey Evaluation Research (Aser) has reported compliance on many RTE norms, such as those related to school...

-Economic and Political Weekly   The Law Commission’s bill on combating honour crimes falls short of what is required. Honour crimes – the illegal decrees by caste/clan/community panchayats to annul or prohibit marriages, social boycotts and even murder of couples – have finally drawn the attention of the State. A consultation paper released by the Law Commission contains a draft bill – The ­Prohibition of Unlawful Assembly (Interference with the Freedom of Matrimonial...

Worried at the prospect of having to match the arbitrary minimum wage rate fixed by the states, the central government is considering changes in the law to specify a separate wage norms for its flagship rural employment guarantee scheme that is undergoing a complete makeover under minister Jairam Ramesh.  The centre has already contested in the Supreme Court a Karnataka High Court interim order directing it to align wage rates under...

The recommendations of the Planning Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Access to Universal Healthcare are significant because they make explicit the need to contextualise health within the rights. However, the problem with the report is that it does not ask why many of the same recommendations that were made by previous committees have not been implemented. The HLEG neither recognises the problems, constraints and compulsions at the national, state...

-The Times of India Free medicines to all patients visiting any government health facility across the country could soon be a reality with the health ministry ready to roll out a nearly Rs 30,000 crore 'free-medicines-for-all' scheme with the PMO's strong backing. The free medicine initiative along with an expansion of the National Rural Health Mission to urban areas, a more district-oriented approach and implementation of recommendations of the K Srinath Reddy...