India has notified education as a fundamental right for all children between 6 and 14 years, enabling them and their parents to legally demand schooling from the government for the academic session beginning April 1. Eight years after Parliament amended the Constitution recognising education as a fundamental right, the government has finally notified the amendment and a law was passed last year to make the right a reality. The notification,...

The Kolkata Group is an independent initiative inspired and chaired by Nobel Prize-winning economist Amartya Sen. Once a year, it brings together participants drawn from various fields to explore the many inter-connections between inequality, deprivation, human development, and democracy. Its special focus has been on examining ways of advancing people’s health and education. The organisations supporting the Kolkata Group are UNICEF India, Professor Sen’s Pratichi Trust, and the Harvard-based Global...

After more than six months wait, HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Friday signed the file for the notification of the Right to Education Act, 2009, in the next few days and its implementation from April 1. Delay in working out the finances and funding pattern between the Centre and states were the reasons given by HRD ministry for sitting on the notification. But the funding pattern is yet to be...

Balaiah, a Dalit farmer in drought-affected Mahabubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh wanted a decent, English-medium education for his son that earned him a white-collar, job. However, as part of this quest, in the last three years, his son Shekhar had shifted five schools — all private English-medium schools with fees ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 550 per month. Despite attending school regularly, Shekhar’s efforts to learn seemed to fail...

Despite criticism by civil society and the free press, the state is continuing its violent campaigns against Maoists unchecked Alongside the great internet firewall of China, the vicious paranoia of Burma's ruling junta, and the lists of murdered journalists in Sri Lanka, India appears as a beacon of free speech and open-minded self-criticism. And yet, for all the vociferous passion of its journalists and activists in calling the powerful to account,...