-The Hindu In the latest move on its social welfare agenda, the government may expand its pension scheme, widening the net for widows, single and divorced women, disabled people, Dalits and tribal senior citizens, as well as increasing the amount paid to older people. The Rural Development Ministry, which is proposing the expansion, estimates the additional cost at more than Rs. 18,000 crore per year. The Ministry has just accepted the recommendations made...

-Frontline There is growing violence against women and children in Haryana, aided by the apparent collusion between the State government and the upper-caste-dominated khap panchayats. THE road leading to Dabra village in Haryana’s Hisar district is not very difficult to locate. It was at Dabra, a mere 15 kilometres from the district headquarters, that a heinous crime was committed on September 9. It would have gone unnoticed had it not been accompanied...

-The Telegraph Nisha Kumari, a Class VIII student in Uttar Pradesh, has taken her school to court because it charges fees her father cannot afford. The Dalit girl from Hathras district today petitioned Allahabad High Court to direct the government-run Girls’ Inter College in Sasni to stop charging her — or any other student — any fee till they reach Class IX. Else, Nisha’s petition said, she may have to drop out of...

-The Hindu Mangalore: In what reveals the persistence of caste-based segregation of children in primary schools in rural Karnataka, around 13.7 per cent of dalit children surveyed in the State have claimed that their teacher had asked them to sit separately from ‘higher caste’ children in the classroom, says a study released by the Centre for Study of Social Exclusion and Inclusive Policy, Mangalore University. Released on October 18 here, ‘Discrimination and...

-The Indian Express An IIM-Ahmedabad analysis of education and employment amongst Muslims in the country has concluded that the minority community has a higher perception of “unfairness” and “discrimination” and that Muslims have, in fact, a stronger case for reservations than the Hindu OBCs. Incidentally, a Central government notification in December 2011 to effect 4.5 per cent minority quota in Central educational institutes was stayed by the Andhra Pradesh High Court earlier...