Frustrated by the government's attitude to disability, an advocacy movement has sprung up in Madhya Pradesh, central India, fighting for the universal right of all children to attend school 'What are friends for? You listen for us and we'll see for you." The black-and-white photograph beneath the words shows a smiling boy with his arm around his partially sighted classmate. It encapsulates the inclusive education ideal – all children of all...

Every afternoon at about four, a slight woman named Runi slips out of the cramped, airless room that she shares with her husband and their sixteen children. She skirts the drainage ditch in front of the building, then walks toward the pile of hardened dung cakes that people in this slum on the edge of the northeastern Indian city of Patna use for fuel. Dressed in a bright-yellow sari shot...

A new vaccine against the Polio virus has helped reduce the number of cases by more than 90%. Research published online in the journal The Lancet, shows that the new vaccine is significantly better at protecting children against Polio than the current popular vaccine. It has already been used in Afghanistan, India and Nigeria. The scientists behind the work believe this new vaccine could help to finally eradicate the disease. Disease elimination Mass vaccination campaigns...

According to recent estimates by the World Health Organisation (WHO) there's been a sharp drop in the number of Polio cases this year as compared to the last. "This is the biggest drop we have seen in the last six years," said Dr J S Bhasin. The number of cases of type-1 Polio is only 16 this year as compared to 51 last year, while type-3 cases stand at 23 against last...

Sitting on his father’s shoulders, two-year-old Rahul Kumar giggles and tugs on a lock of his father’s hair. A happy, healthy-looking boy, Rahul has already seen much of India. Born in a small village in northern Bihar, he has spent roughly half of his short life in Punjab, where his parents work as seasonal farm labourers. He has spent a few months in his parents’ village. The rest has been spent...