Back in 2005, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), now called Mahatma Gandhi NREGS or MGNREGS, was offered as a tool to liberate Dalits and weaker sections in rural India by giving them employment. Five years down the line, a Union Ministry of Rural Development-sponsored investigation has found that the scheme has become “yet another instrument in the consolidation of the existing exploitative power structure”. The investigation report, which became available...

Union Human Resources Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday said the Centre will not budge on provisions of the Right to Education Act (RTE) including the neighbourhood school concept. “There is no question of relaxing any provision. Poor students need an opportunity to study in schools in their neighbourhood,” Sibal told reporters here. The Union Minister was in the City to deliver the Vithal N Chandavarkar Memorial Lecture on ‘Empowerment through Education’...

For proper handling of radioactive, and other hazardous materials VCs must send duly signed reports Cobalt-60 isotope mishandled by Delhi University With a view to ensuring that the guidelines of the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) and the Hazardous Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules are strictly implemented, a UGC expert committee has suggested the setting up of university committees to review safety in handling radioactive and other hazardous materials used by the Institutions. The...

The challenge to the validity of the much-hyped Right to Education (RTE) Act mandating free and compulsory education for children was on Monday admitted for hearing by the Supreme Court and referred for adjudication to a five- judge constitution Bench. A Bench of Chief Justice S H Kapadia and Justices K S Radhakrishnan and Swatanter Kumar found the petition filed by an association of Jaipur-based private unaided schools raising constitutional...

Economic liberalization since the 1990s has helped Dalits in Uttar Pradesh (UP) overcome caste inequalities, according to a research paper that argues against the view that reforms have exacerbated such disparities. The study by Devesh Kapur, Chandra Bhan Prasad, Lant Pritchett and Shyam Babu titled “Rethinking Inequality: Dalits in Uttar Pradesh in the Market Reform Era”, and excerpted last week in the Economic and Political Weekly, finds significant changes in patterns...