Representatives of around 20 civil society organizations and NGOs met the Finance Minister Shri Arun Jaitley as part of pre-budget consultation on social sector on 12 January, 2016. Immediately after the pre-budget consultation, a press conference was held by some of these organizations to convey the media persons what demands/ suggestions were made.   Subrat Das, Executive Director of Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability (CBGA, http://www.cbgaindia.org/) informed us that during...

-Business Standard Jamghat, an organisation in Delhi, is steering street children towards a better life The year was 2003. Prince Charles was to visit India and the NGO Action Aid planned to stage a street play on homelessness for him. It roped in Amit Sinha, a theatre professional, and 14 street children from diverse backgrounds for the project. The play was a success and the ragtag band toured the country to perform it....

-Frontline   Swagata Raha, a senior legal researcher (Consultant) at the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, said the Juvenile Justice Bill, 2015, “incorrectly assumes that children are competent to stand trial as adults”. Currently pursuing Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford, Swagata Raha worked extensively on the campaign against the Juvenile Justice Bill and has written extensively...

-The Hindu What matters more for development: location or community? New official data show that while some communities do better than others in sex ratio and literacy, State-level differences can be as important. Newly released data from the Census shows that on average nationwide, Christians, followed by Muslims, continue to have the most gender-equal child sex ratios of 958 girls for every 1,000 boys and 943 respectively. Buddhists follow, with Hindus, Jains...

-The Times of India Two religious communities of India, Sikhs and Jains, have turned the corner on child sex ratio while all others showed further dips, as did the national average, according to fresh Census 2011 data released on Wednesday. Child sex ratio is the number of girls aged 0-6 years for every 1,000 boys in the same age group. It is a crucial measure for India where preference for sons and...