In our 63rd year of Independence, the Right to Education Act comes into effect on April 1. On the eve of its launch, the Union education minister has balanced our perspective by another resolve. India’s enrolment rate for higher education is around 12 per cent. He would increase this to 30 per cent, in line with the advanced nations. There is only one snag. Unlike in advanced countries, one Indian in...

The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (RTE Act) will be notified on April 1. The Act attempts to address the historical problem of continuing illiteracy as well as the lack of educational opportunities that persist for sections of our population even sixty years after adoption of the Indian constitution. The socio-political, legal and financial aspects of the Act have been much debated and its final form...

The poor health indices and health care in rural India have always been met with lofty ideals sans action; they demand urgent and radical solutions.  The recent proposal to introduce a new medical course, Bachelor of Rural Health Care, has been met with resistance from many sections of the medical fraternity. Its opponents argue that it will result in second-class health care for rural India and increase the rural-urban divide....

Four-year course, including internship, proposed; it would be “institutional” in character  The annual proposed intake for the course is 25 to 50 students Medical Council of India plans to start the course in August The proposed alternative model for under-graduate medical education to create a cadre of rural doctors will be discussed at a two-day workshop beginning here this Thursday. The model, mooted by the Medical Council of India (MCI), is to...

India’s largest association of doctors and the country’s apex regulator of medical education appear poised for confrontation over a government proposal to create a new cadre of healthcare providers for rural areas. The Union health ministry has announced a plan to create a group of health practitioners who could diagnose and treat common illnesses and injuries and prescribe medicines to patients in rural areas plagued by shortages of doctors. The health ministry...