-Economic and Political Weekly   Through a two-way process comprising text analysis of the policy framework of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan programme and analysis of empirical data collected through interaction with policy implementers, teachers, students, experts, etc, this article puts forth the argument that urban education system has failed partly because of the inability of the implementers to plan, manage and facilitate the programme. Monika Banerjee (banerjie77@gmail.com) is with the Zakir Husain Centre...

-Economic and Political Weekly For India to improve the existing government health system is far less complex than expanding health insurance. International experience shows the difficulties of regulating an insurance-based system to keep costs down and assure quality. Monica Das Gupta (mdasgupta@gmail.com) teaches at the University of Maryland, College Park, the US. V R Muraleedharan (vrm@iitm. ac.in) teaches at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. Please click here to download. ...

- Economic and Political Weekly Universalising health coverage is the current goal of the health service system in India. Tax-funded insurance for poor families is the method chosen for attaining this objective. The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana was rolled out in 2008 for households below the poverty line, enabling them to access health services in the public and private sectors. However, experience from different countries shows tax-funded insurance systems work well...

-Economic and Political Weekly Any discussion on universal health coverage in India is premature without a comprehensive understanding of public financing of health coverage in the country. This article analyses the government's share of financial resources for health across different agents, with particular focus on resources for health coverage. An attempt is made to separate spending for health in general and health coverage in particular, and to examine the issue of...

-Economic and Political Weekly The relationship between depleting water levels and school dropout rates is poorly studied. As chronic water shortages begin to affect more regions of the country, this trend will begin to appear more forcefully. Kishore Jha (kishor.delhi6@gmail.com) is working on child rights with Terre des Homes, Germany. Devender, a 14-year-old boy from Kheeda village in Almora district in Uttarakhand State, studies in Class 8. He spends at least three hours...