Within days of Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) recommending that the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act be amended in sync with the Right to Education (RTE) Act - promising free and compulsory education for children aged between 6 and 14 years - the labour ministry will hold a meeting with HRD officials on Wednesday. This is the first concrete action on NAC's recommendation. NAC's proposal, being supported by the...

-Daily Bhaskar   The malnourished children in tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh were subjected to drug trials by doctors at their clinics in defiance of set norms. Documents accessed by DNA reveal that 20 malnourished children who suffered tuberculosis were tested for Bonnisan – an ayurvedic drug manufactured by Indian pharmaceutical company – at Nainpur in Mandla district. All the patients were in infancy or early childhood. Their age ranged from 8 months...

While some may view the food security Bill as the instrument of combating poverty, this distinction belongs to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, the flagship anti-poverty programme of the United Progressive Alliance government. The proponents of the food security Bill at the National Advisory Council have promoted it as the instrument of fighting widespread and rising hunger, instead. But what is the empirical basis of the claims of widespread and...

A report of the National People's Tribunal on the 2008 riots in Kandhamal, Orissa, is out. The report that runs into 197 pages points out that the brutality of the violence falls within the definition of 'torture' under international law, particularly the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.   According to the tribunal, headed by Justice A P Shah, communal forces used religious conversions as an issue for political mobilisation...

-The Pioneer In a bid to further marginalise the Maoists, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has charted out elaborate plans for the tribal people of Jangalmahal. The State Government has plans to provide more “productive opportunities” to the Advasis in order to bring them into the socio-economic mainstream. These include job creation, developing the Alchiki script, setting up educational institutions and healthcare units and inducting local talent into sports and cultural activities. “We...