-Telangana.com India’s school meals programme is ubiquitous, helping deliver food to millions. It faces threats from multiple angles. It would be hard to find a larger or more universal school meals programme than that in India. Until Covid-19 hit, more than 87% of children in rural government schools were being served the ‘Mid-Day Meal’. At last count, the scheme covered 118 million children. The benefits of school meals are well established, but government...

-The Hindu Amidst the scattered experimentation now, the Centre must offer strategic policy guidance for inter-State coordination Only two years ago, in the wake of a nationwide lockdown, India was left shocked by the plight of migrant workers walking hundreds of kilometres, facing hunger, exhaustion and violence, to get to the safety of their home villages. The dire circumstances of the migrants tugged at our collective heartstrings. They became the focus of...

-The Hindu The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights issues notice to official as bank moves to attach house The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has issued summons to a senior official at ICICI Bank as four children stare at the possibility of losing their home over repayment of a loan taken by their parents, both of whom died last year during the second wave of the pandemic. “The...

Online teaching was perhaps the most preferred mode (of the policymakers) for imparting education to school children in the last two years when schools faced closures thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was promoted by both the Central and State Governments when mobility almost came to a standstill (or got restricted in comparison to normal times) during the last two years. However, various studies (a list of those studies is...

-The Hindu Child Rights Commission tells SC that 1.47 lakh children lost a parent during the pandemic The Supreme Court is worried for children, some as young as six year old, whose parents suddenly died of COVID-19, leaving behind unpaid debts, mortgages, loans and insurance premiums. The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has so far identified 1,47,773 children who have lost one parent and another 10,600 who have become orphans...