-The Telegraph   The quality of elementary education is falling in rural schools almost two years after education was made a fundamental right in April 2010. The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2011, a survey of government and private schools in rural areas conducted by the NGO Pratham, shows a decline in schoolchildren’s “learning outcome levels” compared with the previous year, whether in reading or arithmetic skills.  However, students of private schools have...

-PTI   An elderly resident of Indore has alleged that her husband died in 2010 following a drug trial a government doctor conducted on him without his consent. The doctor in question, Salil Bhargava, denied that he was involved in any “illegal or unethical” drug trials. “We have carried out all the drug trials after getting due consent from the patients for which they were duly insured. We have all records with us in...

In June 1979, an innovation in the field of law and politics came about in the form of Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal. The idea behind it is identifying and publicising cases of violations of fundamental rights. For the first time a session of the tribunal was held in India in November 2011. In an interview to Jyotika Sood, the secretary general of the tribunal, Gianni Tognoni, tells how it works What is...

-The Times of India   Rampant corruption in government-run welfare schemes, and not just indebtedness, was one of the major reasons behind farmers in Madhya Pradesh killing themselves, a high-level committee appointed by the state Human Rights commission has reported. After probing the more than 4000 farmer suicides in the state during the last few years, the two member committee comprising renowned agriculture expert G S Kaushal and retired sugar cane commissioner...

Pointing out that nearly one out of seven Americans face food insecurity, Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz said here on Thursday that by recognising the right to food as a basic Human Right, India is leading the way for the rest of the world. “India has recognised the right to food as a basic Human Right, leading the way for the rest of the world, and is on the verge of a...