KEY TRENDS   • According to National Sample Survey report no. 583: Persons with Disabilities in India, the percentage of persons with disability who received aid/help from Government was 21.8 percent, 1.8 percent received aid/help from organisation other than Government and another 76.4 percent did not receive aid/ help *8   • As per National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4), the Under-five Mortality Rate (U5MR) was 57.2 per 1,000 live births (for the non-STs it was 38.5)...

-The Hindu ‘Wilful negligence’ by public servants should be defined better in 24-year-old law Dedicated fast track courts to try offences under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act should be set up, the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council recommended on Tuesday, even as it suggested that “wilful negligence” by public servants be better defined in the 24-year-old law. The NAC would like the Rules to the Act amended to...

-Live Mint Preventing entry of Dalits, tribespeople to places of worship should be made a punishable offence, says NAC Preventing Dalits and tribespeople from entering places of worship will be made a punishable offence under legal changes proposed by the National Advisory Council (NAC), which sets the social policy for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Obstructing members of such groups from using community resources will also be made an offence under...

-DailyBhaskar.com Kishanganj (Bihar): The plight of Dalits in India came to fore again on Tuesday after it was discovered that ‘higher castes’ in village of Kishanganj district including the panchayat head himself had issued a diktat ordering Dalits not to use village water. Bihar Police lodged a complaint on Tuesday against fifteen persons for causing mental torture to Dalits. The Social Boycott of Dalits was effected after one of them complained that money...

-First Post Sabarkantha: In a shocking case of discrimination, students of a government school in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat have rejected the government’s mid day meal scheme because the utensils used are washed by Bhavanaben Makwana, a dalit woman. “I joined this school looking for a job. But since I have joined, students have stopped coming for meals. Only children from my community come,” Bhavanben said. Ramanbai Patel, the village sarpanch said that...