-The Times of India   One month after the horrific Badaun gang Rape exposed how gravely at risk women and minors lacking domestic toilets are, India's sanitation scenario remains dire. Social worker and Padma Bhushan awardee ​Bindeshwar Pathak is founder of Sulabh Sanitation Movement, an organisation that helps build low-cost toilets across the country. Speaking with Fozia Yasin, Pathak discussed the socio-economic costs of lacking proper sanitation, practical ways to correct this...

-The Telegraph Lucknow: Akhilesh Yadav has wrapped up his free laptop scheme and instead pledged funds for building toilets and upgrading the police force in the state budget unveiled today. "We have kept our poll promise and distributed laptops in the first phase of our programme. The stress in this budget is infrastructure and rural development," said the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, under pressure after his party slipped from 21 seats in...

 -AFP   GENEVA: Indian law enforcement and justice authorities have shirked their responsibility to fight sex attacks, a UN child rights watchdog said on Thursday, amid uproar over the horrific gang-Rape and lynching of two girls.   "There has been a dereliction of duty in relation to Rape cases," said Benyam Mezmur, deputy chairman of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child. India has been struggling to overcome its reputation for sexual violence...

-Reuters NEW DELHI: About a quarter of India's land is turning to desert and degradation of agricultural areas is becoming a severe problem, the environment minister said, potentially threatening food security in the world's second most populous country. India occupies just 2 per cent of the world's territory but is home to 17 per cent of its population, leading to over-use of land and excessive grazing. Along with changing rainfall patterns, these...

-Live Mint   Across India, millions of women and girls either wake up well before dawn or wait until late at night to use the open fields that function as their toilet Under cover of a hot night in May in Uttar Pradesh's Badaun district, two teenage cousins stepped out to do what millions of girls and women do across the country. Please click here to read the entire article. ...