-The Independent Hardliners defied as historic blueprint to tackle violence against girls and women is agreed at the United Nations A remarkable coalition of Conservative Muslim, Roman Catholic, and liberal Western countries have joined together to approve a historic United Nations blueprint to combat violence against women and girls. In doing so, they ignored strong objections from Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood that it clashed with Islamic principles and sought to destroy the family. But...

-The Hindu There is no Lokpal yet, but the Centre’s Grievance Redressal Bill promises to cut through bureaucracy and corruption that plague government services. The citizen is hoping for a repeat of the RTI Act story. A year after the UPA came to power in 2004, it brought the Right to Information Act, ushering in a revolution: citizens, for the first time, could Access information under the control of public authorities, whether...

-The Hindu Nationwide frustration arising from large-scale corruption by people in authority erupted in a wave of protests two years ago. Legislative remedies proposed as a response to public anger, such as the Lokpal and the Lokayuktas in all States, have still not become a reality. Adding to the aam aadmi’s sense of outrage, another important legislation that aims at ending administrative gridlock and corruption has run into political troubles. The...

-The Hindu ‘Need for effective time-bound grievance redressal mechanism to deal with violations that are happening on the ground’ A study on implementation of the Right to Education Act in Delhi in three years of its existence has revealed “overwhelming violations’’ of the norms on the ground. The study by NGO Josh, with support of VSO India, has noted that while “73 per cent of the schools had contract teachers’’, in 99 per...

-Down to Earth State plans to bring down its minimum wage rate to that under MGNREGA TO reduce the burden of the state exchequer by Rs 600 crore, Bihar has decided to reduce its minimum wage rate offered to unskilled labourers, and make it on a par with the rate offered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA). This is despite the Supreme Court’s ruling, in many cases, that...