-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has ruled that separate toilets for boys and girls as well as drinking Water facility were integral to right to education and ordered that all schools, including those run by minority community, must make provision for them. A bench of Justice Dipak Misra and Justice V Gopala Gowda said the May 6 judgment of the 5-judge constitution bench, which had exempted the...

-The United Nations   Despite a narrowing disparity in access to cleaner Water and better sanitation between rural and urban areas, sharp inequalities still persist around the world, says a new United Nations report. According to the 2014 Joint Monitoring Report on global progress against the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on Water and sanitation, more than half of the global population lives in cities, and urban areas are still better supplied with improved...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com   Cunoor (Tamil Nadu): The holidays have begun but children arrive at the Denalai Upper Primary School, giggling and whispering excitedly. They have come to proudly flaunt their organic kitchen garden where they grow vegetables and herbs for the school's midday meal. Nestled in the Nilgiris, the school has 38 students. Most of them belong to Denalai, a Baduga village. The Badugas are a tribal community, primarily cultivators, who are known...

-The Hindu A multi-commodity farming system consisting of rice, fish, broiler duck and male buffalo was evaluated at the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Kumarakom, under the Kerala Agricultural University for productivity, income, cropping intensity and generation of employment. The study revealed that a one hectare paddy holder in kuttanad has the carrying capacity of a minimum of 5,000 fishes, 750 broiler ducks and 3-5 male buffaloes in addition to rice. In this...

-The Hindu   Rice, a major crop in Andhra Pradesh, is cultivated using Water from borewells, tanks or open wells. Since the crop grows in standing Water ground Water depletion is usually high especially during summer. In addition to the Water shortage, non-availability of labour on time is also increasing the cost of production, forcing farmers to give up rice cultivation citing low productivity and high labour costs as reasons. Different approach A different look...