The implementation of Right to Education Act may have got a shot in the arm with the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the 25% reservation in unaided private schools for children from lower income group families but inAndhra Pradesh (and possibly other states in the country), the Act might soon figure among the many well-intentioned government schemes that do not impact, leave alone benefit, its target group. At best, the...

-The Economic Times A record high of 31% of Indian adults - or about 240 million Indians - rate their lives poorly enough to be considered 'suffering', according to the 2012 Gallup research released Monday at the Behavioral Economics Forum in New Delhi. This is against 24% "suffering" in 2011. Engagement in Indian workplaces is also a concern, with 8% of Indians who are employed for an employer being engaged, versus 32%...

-The Telegraph Meghalaya chief minister today called for a legislation that would protect students from the Northeast from “insensitive behaviour”, almost a week after his niece, Dana Sangma, killed herself in a Delhi hostel after being allegedly ill-treated by an invigilator. Speaking to reporters at the Delhi Press Club today, Sangma asserted that Dana was targeted only because of her background. The 21-year-old, writing her second semester MBA examination at Amity Business School...

The National Advisory Council has asked the Centre to formulate a national policy to stem the declining sex ratio at birth that it believed was “located at the complex interface of the status of women in Indian society, patriarchal social mores and prejudice, spread and misuse of medical technology and the changing aspirations of urban and rural society”. The council’s draft recommendations — prepared by members Farah Naqvi and A.K. Shiva...

“It is a violation of the child's right to be included in education system” Some non-governmental organisations have opposed the recent amendment to the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, which makes home-based education a right for children with multiple and severe disabilities. The clause says: “Provided that a child with ‘multiple disabilities' referred to in Clause (h) and a child with ‘severe disability' referred to in Clause...