-Live Mint Private school enrolment in the 6-14 age group has gone up to 25.6% in 2011 from 18.7% in 2006 If one wants to understand the dismal state of school education in India, there is no better place to look than the pages of the Annual Status of Education Report 2011 (ASER). Forget the detailed statistics, just look at the maps displaying basic school education facts. They reinforce only one fact:...

Third report in three months to highlight lack of quality education in India; poses risk to knowledge hub hopes Nearly two years after the Right to Education (RTE) Act was introduced with the promise of providing free and compulsory education to all primary school children, the learning outcome in the country has actually deteriorated in terms of quality. In yet another wake-up call for policymakers, the 2011 Annual Status of Education Report...

-The Telegraph The Canadian Medical Association Journal has sought a ban on the disclosure of foetal sex until after 30 weeks of pregnancy amid concerns that sections of Asian immigrants, including Indians, in Canada selectively abort female foetuses. The journal said the sex of a foetus need not be revealed to any woman before 30 weeks because such information was medically irrelevant and could, in some instances, facilitate female foeticide. Postponing the disclosure...

-The Hindu   Suggest “necessary preventive” measures to safeguard the interest of workers   Trade union groups on Monday pitched for a worker-oriented Budget for 2012-13 aimed at removing poverty and unemployment and suggested “necessary preventive” measures to safeguard the interests of workers. At their meeting here with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee — the second in the series of the customary pre-Budget consultations — representatives of trade unions (TUs) proposed that wages of contract labour...

In the absence of legislation to protect women from sexual harassment at the workplace, the Supreme Court in 1997 laid down guidelines in the Vishaka vs State of Rajasthan in 1997. Thirteen years later, Parliament came up with the “Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010”. However, the Bill sees sexual harassment at the workplace not as a criminal offence but as a mere civil wrong, the...