After months of debating the issue and seeking the law ministry's opinion, the HRD ministry on Tuesday finally issued guidelines about screening of children at the time of admission under the Right to Education Act. HRD minister Kapil Sibal said, "We have taken the law ministry's clearance to issue the guidelines on screening. The RTE Act will be amended later. Had we gone in for an amendment on screening now admissions...

It is quite likely that a few weeks from now someone will be knocking at your doors and asking for your fingerprints. If you agree, your fingerprints will enter a national database, along with personal characteristics (age, sex, occupation, and so on) that have already been collected from you, unless you were missed in the “Census household listing” earlier this year. The purpose of this exercise is to build the National...

The two day 43rd Session of the Indian Labour Conference (ILC), the apex national tripartite body that discusses key issues affecting labour and employment and provides policy perspectives and recommendations, concluded in New Delhi today. The Conference was inaugurated by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Tuesday 23rd November 2010. Senior level representatives of the three pillars of the tripartism, Trade Unions, Employers’ Associations and Government, participated in the deliberations...

Frustrated by the government's attitude to disability, an advocacy movement has sprung up in Madhya Pradesh, central India, fighting for the universal right of all children to attend School 'What are friends for? You listen for us and we'll see for you." The black-and-white photograph beneath the words shows a smiling boy with his arm around his partially sighted classmate. It encapsulates the inclusive education ideal – all children of all...

The Adivasi Sahitya Sabha is gearing up to start a unique School where Adivasi students will get the opportunity to study in the popular Adivasi language — Sadri. The School, to be set up in Sonitpur district, will start functioning from December this year. Adivasis were brought to the state by British tea planters from different parts of the country before Independence, to work in the nascent tea industry. As they were...