-Outlook Mumbai: In a significant order, the Bombay High Court has asked the Maharashtra Government not to impose the burden of managing mid-day meal scheme for students on teachers, calling it "non-educational work". Putting such non-teaching responsibility on teachers would amount to violation of section 27 of the Education Act, a division bench headed by Justice Abhay Oka ruled on Thursday. Section 27 provides that "no teacher shall be deployed for any non-educational...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has criticised political appointments in the top child rights body and stopped fresh entries till the Centre comes up with selection guidelines and issue ads to fill vacancies. The court has given the Union women and child development ministry six weeks to come up with the norms on the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). The bar on appointments will apply till then. "Receiving...

-The Hindu The rate of handwashing shot up from just one per cent to 37 per cent in just six months One of effective public health interventions and the most elementary hygiene ritual - washing hands - can help prevent diarrhoea that annually kills 8,00,000 children aged below five years. Yet, surveys show that handwashing remains at best "suboptimal" across the world, whether in India, Ghana, China - or even in parts...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: women scholars, politicians and activists from across South Asia expressed concern over escalation of violence, fundamentalism and increased militarization of response to people's movements and urged inclusion of women in peace building. At a seminar organized by UN women, SAFHR and IDRC on Tuesday, Rebeca Tavares of UN women said, "women and men experience war differently. There is a need to convincingly demonstrate that engaging women...

-The New York Times BOLLIKUNTA, India - Latha Reddy Musukula was making tea on a recent morning when she spotted the money lenders walking down the dirt path toward her house. They came in a phalanx of 15 men, by her estimate. She knew their faces, because they had walked down the path before. After each visit, her husband, a farmer named Veera Reddy, sank deeper into silence, frozen by some terror...