The differently-abled account for 5-7% of India’s population in the age group of 6-14 years, but they make up only 0.4% of its workforce. This large variance in the space of a few years can be explained by the disadvantages and discrimination the differently-abled face at every step, starting from the first: being counted. Civil society activists say various attempts by the government to identify and enumerate the differently-abled in...

The human resource development ministry is planning to set up colleges, Kendriya Vidyalayas, secondary schools and girls’ hostels in Naxalite-affected areas. The ministry’s higher education department, in a letter written on August 20, has asked the home ministry for details of Naxalite-hit areas. “The information will help in planning how and where to set up new institutions. We will also explore how to provide more grants to institutions in those areas through...

The Centre has agreed to release `400 crore to the Andhra Pradesh government to implement the Right to Education Act from this academic year 2010-11. The decision was taken at a meeting convened by the Union minister of human resource development with the officials of the school education department of various states in New Delhi this week. The principal secretary of primary education, Ms Chandana Khan, had attended the meeting. The Union...

Congress leader and Rajya Sabha member Mani Shankar Aiyar said on Sunday the authorities were not taking enough steps to bridge the widening gap between the rich and the poor. He raised questions over the implementation of major schemes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS) and accused the Union government of “relentlessly” supporting the stock market, thinking its health reflected the people's health. Delivering a lecture here...

Nearly a million tribals have been given land rights under the forest rights act and they will be made stakeholders in development projects, says Tribal Affairs Minister Kantilal Bhuria, as this largely neglected section of Indian society comes to the fore of government policy. “We have received over 28 lakh (2.8 million) representations for land rights, of which 10 lakh claimants have been given land rights,” Bhuria, 60, who is himself...