-The Hindu The Supreme Court's judgment upholding the validity of Article 21A and the Right to Education Act has gutted the operative provisions of the law While free and compulsory education for all children below the age of 14 has been a constitutional imperative for the government for the last 64 years, it is a matter of fact (and shame) that successive governments have not achieved this yet. The most concerted effort...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Another ‘Gujarat model’-Anupama Katakam
-Frontline A study on untouchability practices in 1,589 villages in Gujarat provides critical data for the Dalit movement to shape its interventions at the national and international levels. DESPITE laws making it punishable, untouchability continues to exist in the country in a vicious manner. A study titled "Understanding Untouchability: A Comprehensive Study of Practices and Conditions in 1,589 villages", conducted in Gujarat by the Navsarjan Trust, an organisation that promotes the...
More »A Critique of The Draft Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill, 2014 -Amba Salelkar
-Kafila.org The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill was meant to be an enactment to codify India's obligations under the UNCRPD, which it ratified without reservations. There was a Committee set up in 2009 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, headed by Smt. Sudha Kaul, to draft a Bill to this effect. Like the UNCRPD says, the Committee included different people with disabilities - across disabilities - to draft...
More »'I don’t tell them if I am not well, as I may lose a day’s salary' -Harsha Raj Gatty
-The Indian Express Domestic workers in the state are meant to get minimum wage of Rs 5,000, health care benefits, scholarships for kids, life insurance. It's 4 am and Vasanthi B is already up. After years, it's now a habit, and she doesn't need an alarm to wake up to get her daughters Shweta, Shilpa and Shobha, aged 11, 9 and 7 respectively, ready for school. By the time they leave at...
More »States not following Central RTE Act provisions: NCPCR report-Preeti Mehra
-The Hindu State governments are going "against the letter and spirit" of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 (RTE Act) on several issues in the State rules they have formulated, reveals a recent review report of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR). They have in effect diluted the Act that is supposed to provide all children between ages 6 and 14 the fundamental right...
More »