-GaonConnection.com A survey-based study by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR)'s Dalit Adhikari Andolan found that 56% of the surveyed students from the marginalised communities in the annual income group of Rs 20,000-40,000 were unable to access online classes. Further, 73% respondents from particularly vulnerable tribal groups were unable to access online classes in the COVID pandemic. One out of every second Dalit and tribal student interviewed as part of...

-The Hindu Opinion comes at a time when Telangana SEC is set to carry out an e-voting experiment Former Chief Election Commissioners (CEC) have raised a range of concerns, from maintaining secrecy of ballots to bringing political parties on board, around the idea of online voting and remote voting, at a time the Telangana State Election Commission is set to carry out an e-voting experiment and the Election Commission of India, too,...

-The Hindu Bench says disparity exposed by online classes has been heart-rending The digital divide caused by online classes will defeat the fundamental right of every poor child to study in mainstream schools, the Supreme Court warned on Friday. The court rued how the right to education of little children now hinges on who can afford “gadgets” for online classes and who cannot. Little children whose parents are too poor to afford laptops, tablets...

-TheWire.in The 'Freedom of the Net', an annual report that analyses the state of human rights in the digital sphere, found plenty to object to in the Indian context. New Delhi: “Where democratic checks and balances are lacking, government officials will exploit regulation to punish any company that moderates politicians’ speech, or pushes back against arbitrary orders to remove content or hand over data.” These lines come from Freedom House’s latest edition of...

-Newsclick.in Just reopening schools won’t make an unequal education system more equal without public funding. It may speed up SARS-CoV-2 mutations and risk another brutal Covid-19 wave. The Delhi government recently decided to reopen schools and other educational institutions after a long Covid-19 related shutdown. Previously, several other states had taken similar decisions. Such decisions have been backed by several experts and activists, principally on two grounds. Firstly, socially and economically disadvantaged...