-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Three years of Right to Education has resulted in expansion of schools with 98% of habitations having primary schools within one kilometre and 92% habitations having upper primary schools within three kilometres. The government has now decided to shift the focus on quality of education and decided to formulate national standards for schools' performance to keep students and parents well informed. Making a presentation on...

-The Hindustan Times Panchla, Howrah: A limp is all that sets Ruksha Shah, 5, apart from other girls of her age in her home in Subharara village in the Panchla block of the Howrah district of West Bengal. It's the only remnant of the polio infection that ravaged her in 2011, which left her right leg a little shorter and weaker than the left. Ruksha's the last recorded case of polio -...

-Frontline A report by ActionAid and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences highlights the vulnerability and tragic living conditions of thousands of children who take shelter in Mumbai's streets. IN 1988, the acclaimed film-maker Mira Nair made Salaam Bombay!, a poignantly revealing film on street children in Mumbai. The plot revolves around the protagonist, Krishna or "Chaipau", who is kicked out of his home by his mother for having damaged his...

A new report from Right to Sanitation Campaign in India entitled: In Deep Shit paints a gloomy picture about the position of India's sanitation, and simultaneously draws our attention to the case of ‘missing' and ‘dead' toilets. The report has questioned the claims made by the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) that India is making great strides in availing toilets to its rural population through the Nirmal Bharat...

-The United Nations Nearly 230 million children under the age of five have not had their births officially recorded, excluding them from education, health care and social security, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) today reported. That is approximately one in three of all children under five who are unregistered or lack proof of registration, the agency said in a report released to coincide with its 67th birthday. "Birth registration is more than...