Decoding the 'mystery' behind Maoists, the Centre has for the first time brought out in open many facts that have hitherto remained in official papers and urged aam aadmis to expose true colours of Red rebels in whatever ways they can, including use of social media like Facebook and twitter. In a document, brought out in the form of frequently asked questions (FAQs) last week, the Union home ministry has classified...

If India is an aspiring society, education is perhaps the quickest vehicle of social mobility. Right to Education (RTE) is a supplyside intervention by the government that will make education cheaper and, in the process, every child will get a chance to be educated. But an approach that focuses on availability of schools, getting children to the classroom and getting them taught by reasonably well-trained teachers is not enough. Retention...

-Express News Service More than 80,000 street children in the state’s urban areas are not going to school and around 25,000 of them are from Ahmedabad, according to a survey conducted by the state government for the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. Gujarat primary education secretary R P Gupta, when contacted, said, “Recently as a part of the implementation of the RTE Act in the state, the Sarva Shiksha...

-The Business Standard Moving forward on sanitation will require big ideas National shame” is how most people, including some senior government functionaries, often refer to the pervasive practice of open defecation. Yet, the Total Sanitation Campaign (TSC), launched in 1991 with the noble objective of providing access to hygienic toilets for all by 2012, receives only scant attention from the government. The latest assessment indicates that as many as 22 states will...

Odisha village gets pattas after nearly half a century. Land reform programmes get jumpstart They say home is where the heart is, but that’s not always true. Ask Arakhita Pradhan, resident of Chilipoi village in Odisha’s Ganjam district. On a cold evening some 44 years ago, the authorities forcefully shifted him and his neighbours to a place where no civic amenities existed. Reason: the state had built an irrigation dam that...