: The Chennai Koyambedu connection had a clear reflection on the number of fresh coronavirus cases in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday as the border districts of Chittoor and SPS Nellore reported 16 and five in the last 24 hours as the states overall tally shot up by 50 to 1,980. The official bulletin showed one fresh Covid-19 death in Kurnool district and put the overall count at 45, as the one fatality reported in Vizianagaram on Saturday was not added to the table. Over 160 people with contacts to people who returned from the Koyambedu wholesale market in Chennai were traced in Chittoor district and tests so far revealed 27 COVID-19 positive cases in the last two days, official sources here said. With the fresh additions, the number of active cases in Chittoor rose to 38. SPS Nellores tally also crossed the century mark to 101 but the number of active cases here was 36. Nellore too had the Koyambedu connection and officials were busy tracing the contacts of the Chennai ...

A wide-cross section of academicians and civil society organisations have come together to express dissent at the threat of closure of a well known rural school in Bandhyali, Rajasthan. They are demanding that the government honour its own commitments to provide free, good education to all children, reports Deepti Priya Mehrotra.

This 15-year-old school in Rajasthan has been providing quality education accessible to poor children. But going against the spirit of a High Court order, the Jaipur Development Authority has asked the Bandhyali school to pay a prohibitive sum for its allotted land. Deepa A reports.

The dimensions of the open, continuous and unchecked textbooks publishing rackets have recently come to light following the defeat of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government in the general election held last year. Srinidhi Raghavendra reports.

A number of new NCERT textbooks for class I to class XII have been designed to encourage children to question social prejudices, discrimination and inequalities. This is a conscious reversal of the earlier trend where textbooks reinforced prevailing stereotypes, notes Deepti Priya Mehrotra.

Do alternative schools work? After all, every child has to ultimately face a society that puts a premium on competitiveness and commodification. Or are alternatives only an option for children of parents from a certain class of society? Deepa A finds out.

The Education Bill 2003 is well-intended, but its implication for contemporary Indian conditions must be examined first, says Sankrant Sanu.

Half a century after it started funding the massive expansion of higher education, the University Grants Commission is gearing itself up to engineer a quality revolution.

For decades, there have been concerns that India's universities were being bogged down by the number of institutes they had to manage. Recently, the University Grants Commission accepted in principle that autonomy must be green-lighted. But debates on the freedom of institutions remain inconclusive, reports Deepa A.

Most private schools are not elite at all, contrary to public perception, and the Right to Education Act will let them run amok at the expense of the public education system, writes E S Ramamurthy.

The recently announced 'cradle scheme' is the central government's solution to stem the practice of female foeticide. The idea appears to be to encourage parents to leave their girl child in the care of the government instead of killing her. Swapna Majumdar finds out if it will work.

Palash Foundation helps people move on from the trauma and social challenges faced by those who are disfigured, or simply visually different. Freny Manecksha reports.

In 2005, the Education department of Tripura decided to give a push to Kok-Borok as a medium of instruction at the Junior Basic level to help tribal students learn in their mother tongue. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports on the challenges as well as the gains from a strong focus on education in recent years in the state.

A wide range of programmes and strong financial support have helped Tripura raise access to education for its tribal population. Ratna Bharali Talukdar on the many incentives that anchor the state's efforts to bridge the learning gap between tribals and non-tribals.

Public funded non-formal education has been in vogue in India from the 1970s. While NFE centres were meant to be a special bridge for underprivileged children to get back to mainstream schools, many are bereft of infrastructure, pay teachers less and teach students little. Deepa A investigates.

The Centre's latest piece-meal approach to child labour is likely to be as ineffective as the previous failed schemes and plans. Unless the underlying causes of child labour are addressed, and the rights of children are properly secured, India will remain prone to wide-spread child labour, writes Ingrid Srinath.

As more poor migrant children face exploitation in Kerala, some schools are coming up with ways to enrol and retain them. A few schools now have more migrant than local students, Navya P K points out.

Citizen participation is important not just for inspiring goals, but simply to create a society where governments gain and hold the confidence of the people.

The India Together editorial

The disconnect between civil society and government has led to successive generations of policy and implementation failures. The India Together editorial.

New Delhi is closer to accepting a progressive radio policy, but there is still more it can do. The India Together editorial.

The new government's candour that meaningful reforms must permeate into the institutions beyond the budgetary process itself is a start. The India Together editorial.

The National Advisory Council's civil society members assured us of their independence and continued focus on the public good. That promise met its first test during the past fortnight. The India Together editorial.

Why are our publicly held/debated notions of morality limited to a few things such as the world of those castigated as sexual outliers? Partly, the fault lies in our public discourse - a discourse that has turned conversations about morality itself into rare events. The India Together editorial.

Regulation that is working well, as well as others that plainly speak of misgovernance, are both instructive; the road forward lies in separating regulation from the government, and vesting this instead in independent and autonomous bodies created by Parliament. The India Together editorial.

While endless rounds of complaint and criticism have been seen in every arena, this has not led the public to demand that the size of government be reduced. How long will this last? The India Together editorial.

It is the first meaningful attempt by the Government of India to make good on a promise it made at the time of Independence itself, and yet, the RTE law has ended up in the courts. What happened and why? The India Together editorial.

Aarti Madhusudhan begins a series on the workings of development organizations. In this first part, she looks at the role of board members: their obligations, services, and even their identities!

Videh Upadhyay argues that adivasis will benefit greatly if the Provision of Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act (PESA) is implemented on the ground by the state governments.

Aarti Madhusudhan outlines the do's and dont's of getting new NGO Board members to be an integral part of the organisation.

The tenth Mumbai International Flim Festival has just closed. And obviously, the ilm-makers who protested MIFF 2003 have got their message across that they won't tolerate government interference. Now, the films aren't censored any more. Darryl D'Monte reports.

Male prostitution, both forced and voluntary, is a reality that is often forgotten in the discourse on gender rights and issues. Tejaswini Pagadala throws light on the lives of male sex workers in the country.

A new child-led survey has documented the types of violence children in Maharashtra are exposed to. Alka Gadgil reports the important findings from the survey.

The Social Work Research Centre addresses community problems by building upon people's skills, and placing the solutions in their own hands.

The Centre for Women's Development Studies (CWDS) has developed long-overdue indicators to assess gender sensitivity in governance.

In the workplaces of the times - the call centres of global corporations - Indian expertise is rewarding, but also has significant downsides, says Geeta Seshu.
Part II : Stress in the sunshine sector

Some of the hits of the last few years (post-liberalisation) show a decided nostalgia for a traditional way of life where women are the homemakers, says Shahla Raza.

Geeta Seshu recalls the women of 2003, whose lives offered hope for improved rights tomorrow, and also reminded us of the failures we live with today.

Activists within the Muslim community are demanding reforms to tackle questions of personal law such as dowry, divorce and polygamy. Ashima Kaul reports.

The eagerness to take up their issues themselves has not automatically led to a smooth start for the All India Muslim Women's Personal Law Board. But clearly, there is now more discussion of the issues that interest them. And that is a significant step in itself. Puja Awasthi reports.

A retired diplomat in Bhubaneswar wants more old age homes in India, but why? Rakhi Ghosh narrates the stories of a few elderly people in the city, as she tries to fathom their needs and expectations.

Does inequality engender crime? S Venkatraman presents a graphical exposition of data from a recent WEF report and the NCRB to unravel the many layers of inequality and violence against women in India.

Widows in India have lived on the margins of society for decades but the intervention of NGO Sulabh International, led by Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, has brought new hope and colour in their lives. Ramesh Menon reports on one of the first celebrations in their new-found lives.

Manjari Singh reports on the opening of the Lucknow branch of Sheroes Hangout, a café run and managed by acid attack survivors under the guidance of the humanitarian organisation “Stop Acid Attacks”

Women are making a mark in a profession almost entirely dominated by men. Shoma Chatterji talks to the women idol makers of Kumartuli to find out about their struggle and success.

October is domestic violence awareness month. Pushpa Achanta shares stories of victims of domestic violence to point out why the dilution of IPC Section 498A by the Supreme Court is a blow to the fight against domestic violence.

The National Seeds Bill was recently studied by a parliamentary standing committee after being introduced in the Rajya Sabha late last year. The bill has provoked controversy because it is seen as seeking to shift control of seeds from farmers to seed firms. Kavitha Kuruganti provides a critique.

A number of factors have combined to keep farmers in the country growing wheat and rice, instead of fruits and vegetables which would fetch much higher returns, writes Richa Govil.

Serious and rampant irregularities exposed by the CAG audit of the Agricultural Debt Waiver and Debt Relief Scheme, 2008 hold important cautionary advice for the government as it seeks to launch direct cash transfers. Himanshu Upadhyaya analyses.

The India Together editorial.