Painting a grim picture of the standard of education in Indian schools, a report on Friday disclosed that half the students in class V cannot read class II texts. The report, released by vice-president Hamid Ansari in the Capital, said that in spite of the Right to Education (RTE) Act roll-out in April, ground realities have not changed much. The nationwide survey found that though enrolment has increased, the role of...

The National Advisory Council, headed by Sonia Gandhi, today disapproved the exclusion of domestic workers from the purview of a proposed law for protection of women against sexual harassment at workplaces. The bill, introduced in the Lok Sabha during the winter session, aims to prevent harassment of women at the workplace by implied or overt promise of preferential treatment or threat or interference in work through intimidation. The NAC, which discussed the...

On December 15, the Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly cleared a bill to regulate microfinance institutions (MFIs) in the state. The bill replaces an ordinance issued in October following 54 suicide deaths allegedly due to coercive methods of loan recovery by MFIs (see ‘Death by Default’, Down To Earth, November 30, 2010). The bill Mandates MFIs to be registered with the district authority to collect installments at the panchayat office and restricts...

NRHM needs to revitalise systems, monitor their functional performance and investigate their impact on the indices of health. The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched in 2005 to bring about a dramatic improvement in the health system and health status of people in rural India. It seeks to provide universal access to health care, which is affordable, equitable, and of good quality. It aims at making architectural corrections to basic...

This order will bind all private unaided schools in Rajasthan, but it underlined the Supreme Court's anxiety towards implementation of Right To Education Act, 2009, which mandated schools to keep 25% of seats for socially and economically disadvantaged sections. Importantly, a Bench comprising Justices R V Raveendran and A K Patnaik also stayed the stipulation of weightage to parent's educational qualification for admissions into pre-primary and nursery classes. Though this is...