-The Times of India CHENNAI: Activists campaigning for Universal education on Monday called for a common school system that would offer education free of cost for all children in the country and help stop the commercialization of education. Briefing reporters about an all India conference to be held in the city on June 30 and July 1, All India Forum for Right To Education presidium member Anil Sadgopal said, "There is widespread...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Dialogue is a casualty when ‘sensitivities' are benchmarks by Apoorvanand
-The Hindu The petition against the Ambedkar-Nehru cartoon, published in The Hindu (“Humour is by no means exempt from prejudice”, June 8, 2012), makes for sad reading. Sad, because it bears the signatures of some of our best scholars, universally admired for their rigorous scholarship, who nevertheless chose to sign a petition short on facts. The petition asks the NCERT's Textbooks Review Committee to “reconsider the Ambedkar cartoon (and possibly other such...
More »25% RTE quota: Getting the poor into private schools-Anahita Mukherji
-The Economic Times One of the most heartwarming films of 2011 centred on a child labourer who fitted in exceedingly well with his wealthier classmates at school. While a nasty teacher drives the child out of school in the celluloid imagining, in real life, a nasty education system threatens to drive such kids from the country's elite schools. Among the most jarring arguments against a clause in the Right to Education (RTE)...
More »India makes dubious claims before UN on human rights-Manoj Mitta
It was due to a civil society struggle that the government only last year removed the bar on outsiders from participating in the social audit of projects executed under its showcase legislation of MGNREGA. Barring Andhra Pradesh, no state has so far implemented this reform. Yet, in its report for the ongoing universal periodic review (UPR) before the UN Human Rights Council, India cited the social audit clause in MGNREGA...
More »Delhi slum dancers revive a sub-culture
-IANS It's hard to imagine that a small room in a dingy lane is the training ground for young talent from nearby slums who are on their way to becoming B-Boys (Break Boys) who perform the Breaking or B-boying street dance genre. As one enters the room in the Khirki urban village in South Delhi after climbing steep and dark stairs, one is greeted by sounds of laughing, screaming and hooting. The...
More »