-Down to Earth Schools in Maharashtra do not want responsibility, say the scheme hampers teaching THE Maharashtra government may allow Schools in the state to outsource midday meal with the consent of School management committees (SMCs). The Mid Day Meal Committee, constituted by the state government, recommended in early November that education societies which run more than one School can outsource midday meal to a single agency if the SMCs agree. The...

-Frontline DAVID SANDERS, Professor Emeritus and founding Director of the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa, is a specialist paediatrician with postgraduate qualifications in public health. One of the founders of the global public health movement, he has over 30 years' experience in health policy and programme development in Zimbabwe and South Africa, having advised governments as well as organisations such as...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Around two in five men in India - nearly 40.7% - were found to hold 'rigid and discriminatory' gender views. This segment believes women to be inferior. Such men are very controlling. They tend to dictate whom the wives can meet and do not allow participation in decision-making. Further, men who hold the most rigid views of masculinity are three times more likely to physically abuse their...

-The Hindu     To be able to deliver appropriate legal services to the rural and tribal communities, we need an alternative delivery system with a different model of legal service providers Delivery of legal services to the rich and the corporate class is organised not through individual lawyers but through a series of networked law firms. These firms employ hundreds of lawyers and domain experts all over the country to provide highly specialised...

-The Indian Express Lucknow: Local clerics in nearly 30 Muslim dominated villages in Sambhal district have given a call from mosques to boycott the polio immunisation drive to pressure the government into making their villages part of Moradabad district. The clerics have also told villagers to stop sending their children to School, forbidden them from attending political rallies, and banned the entry of politicians into the villages. Any family that disobeys will be...