-The Week Shambhu Kumar, 8, quite liked his job as a domestic help in a small town in Assam. He had to mind two children nearly his age, keep an eye on the ducks and be available for chores all day. It wasn't too hard, and he was well fed, too, though he missed his grandmother, a tea garden labourer. One day, some women from the state education department came to the...

-The Business Standard The cracker industry in Sivakasi is estimated to be worth about Rs 3,500 cr B Bagyalakshmi, S Mahalakshmi and K Sankaralingam have two things in common. All used to work in firecracker and matchbox making units at Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu. However, they rebuilt their lives after studying at the National Child Labour Project (NCLP)'s special training centres, run with the financial assistance from Central and state governments. While...

-Tehelka The new and improved Bill to prevent atrocities against Dalits runs the risk of being put in the cold storage A crime against Dalits happens every 18 minutes - three women raped every day, 13 murdered every week, 27 atrocities every day, six kidnapped every week and so on. This is the data compiled by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, an NGO, which paints a grim picture of Indian...

-The Hindu Plea for cocoon procurement facility, silk reeling centre Dindigul (Tamil Nadu): Better procurement price, good yield in a short gestation period and stable market for cocoons throughout the year - all these factors have attracted many farmers to take up sericulture. Rapid expansion of sericulture farms has pushed Dindigul district to the third place in the State in cocoon production. Koovanuthu Pudur near Saanaarpatti is a major cocoon production centre in...

-Livemint A study shows there has been considerable upward mobility among both the poor and vulnerable sections of the population One of the reasons for the drubbing given to the Congress in the recent national and state elections is the disenchantment of the so-called neo middle class with its policies. A recent World Bank paper (Addressing Inequality in South Asia by MartiN Rama, Tara Béteille, Yue Li, Pradeep K. Mitra and John...