In an attempt to expedite the implementation of the RTE Act (Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act), the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday approved revision of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), which is regarded as a flagship programme to universalise elementary education across the country. A revised SSA that is aligned with the RTE norms is expected to be the main vehicle for the...

India's first caste-based census since 1931 will take place next year, the cabinet has announced. It said the controversial count would last from June-September 2011, after a full census had been held. Answering questions on caste will be optional. The move is intended to help target affirmative action benefits. Discrimination relating to caste in Hinduism - the complex social hierarchy based on people's occupations - is banned in India but still goes on. Critics...

A wreath of lesions coils up Sunita Tulavi neck; lesions she says were caused in the course of a three-day interrogation at a Border Security Force camp in Chhattisgarh's Kanker district. “They blindfolded me, tied my hands and then electrocuted me with wires wrapped around my neck and stomach,” said Sunita, a resident of Aloor village, “They questioned me for three days and then released me. My sister is still...

Last week saw the publication by BS Books of the India Health Report 2010 (henceforth referred to as IHR10), edited (and mostly written) by Ajay Mahal, Bibek Debroy and Laveesh Bhandari. For anyone interested in India’s health status, access to health care and medicines, emerging health problems, the infrastructure of health services, medical ethics, health-care financing, government programmes and regulations and key issues in health sector reform, this 138-page report...

In pushing for a greatly truncated PDS, the Food Security Bill proposed by the NAC, which has many right-to-food activists, undermines the PDS itself. ENSURING food security was the big promise of United Progressive Alliance-2. The promise to enact legislation to ensure a minimum quantity of affordable food to all poor households in the country was part of the election manifesto of the Congress party that leads the government. The 100-day...