Suggestions/amendments sent by the All India Save Education Committee (AISEC), in its on the recently-released Draft National Policy on Education (NEP) sent to Union minister for human resource development Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’: The all-India meet organised by the All-India Save Education Committee (AISEC) at Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad, on July 28, 2019, in which representatives of more than 15 states actively participated, univocally opines that the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) should not be in a haste to take decisions on such an important issue like education. The ultimate dateline for the submission of amendments, recommendations and suggestions should be extended for at least three months, if not more, and there should be consultation with all major teachers’ and principals’ organisations, students’ and parents’ organisations, educationists of national repute and with the scientific community. The all-India meet of AISEC differs with the views of the Kas

By Venkatesh Nayak* The Bill to amend The Right to Information Act, 2005 ( RTI Act ) which the Lok Sabha approved (218 voting in favour and 79 opposing it) this Monday (22 July, 2019) is slated for introduction and passing in the Rajya Sabha today ( Click here and select 24/07/2019 for accessing the List of Business of the House). Despite the very vocal demand of the Opposition Benches who pointed out the flaws in the scheme and purpose of the Amendment Bill, the Government refused to accede. Will the Opposition MPs succeed in their efforts today to get the Bill referred to a Select Committee of the Rajya Sabha, remains to be seen. In his reply at the end of the debate, the Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions made a few points which indicated the Government’s mind in pushing for these amendments. These issues need elaborate discussion and hopefully MPs in the Rajya Sabha will take them up in right earnest. Meanwhile, I am sharing some of

Excerpts from the chapter “Ministry / Department wise priority to schemes for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes” in the report “Dalit Adivasi Budget Analysis 2019-20”, published by the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights-Dalit Arthik Adhikar Andolon: In the budget speech of 2017-18, then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had introduced outcome-based monitoring for Schemes for welfare of scheduled castes, scheduled tribe and minorities. Subsequently the nodal ministries – Ministry for Social Justice and Empowerment (MSJE) and Ministry of Tribal Affairs ( MoTA) launched E-utthaan, a monitoring portal to get real-time data of performance and outcomes for all ministries and departments. These portals can become a useful tool for analyzing the approach and programme implementation strategy of all ministries/ departments, which are earmarked for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC & ST) communities. The two monitoring portals have improved budget transparency with regard to implem

Excerpts “The Right to Information (Amendment) Bill, 2019: A Critical Review of the Amendment Proposals and the Underlying Reasoning”, prepared by Venkatesh Nayak, Access to Information Programme, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, New Delhi: *** The Government of India (GoI) has come up with a Bill to amend the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act). This is GoI’s third attempt to amend this seminal law since its enforcement in October 2005. First, in August 2006, the Union Cabinet approved proposals to amend the law in order to keep “file notings” or opinion and advice recorded on file by officers involved in a decision-making chain on issues other than those relating to development and social issues. Thanks to the very vocal and widespread opposition from the citizenry, the government was compelled to shelve the proposal without ever introducing it in Parliament. Second, in 2013, GoI tabled a Bill to amend the RTI Act in order to insulate from public scrutiny, all political pa

By Moin Qazi* Faiz Ahmed Faiz – the poet, teacher, editor, freedom-fighter, progressive writer and Lenin Peace Prize recipient – is one of the greatest poets of the Indian subcontinent. He was not a mere dreamer of dreams but was an iconoclast who inspired a million mutinies. Great poets like Faiz are warriors and serve as the sentinels of the collective conscience of their times. Countries have frontiers but the war against slavery and exploitation has no frontier. Faiz understood that a society without meaningful poetry is a society on the last legs of its wretched existence. It is a society bereft of dreams and thus, a society bereft of hope. Faiz’s verses wee redolent with prison terms, privation, exile, protest, resistance. Faiz espoused the cause of freedom and ranks with poets like Pablo Neruda, Nazim Hikmet, and Louis Aragon. His poetry, rich with the classical hue of Ghalib and Iqbal, acquired a characteristic tone and he excelled in the nazm and ghazal, the two major forms o

Excerpts from the report “State of the Education Report for India 2019 Children with Disabilities”, prepared by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (Mumbai) and commissioned by UNESCO New Delhi: The Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009 and the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (RPWD) Act 2016 have helped create a comprehensive legal framework for inclusive education. However, there are a few ambiguities about where children with disabilities (CWDs) should study and who should teach them. Gaps remain in the form of appropriate norms and standards applicable to all educational institutions, services provided to CWDs, and the absence of a coordinated authority to enforce the norms and standards. An analysis of the current situation indicates that an estimated 7.8 million children aged under 19 live with disabilities. National estimates of the proportion of population with disabilities is much lower than international estimates, leading to questions about the disability measures used

Recommendations by a collective of women’s groups, queer groups, NGOs, students, and academics working in the field of gender, sexuality and education on the on the Government of India’s Draft New Education Policy (DNEP) 2019 from the gender and sexuality perspective: We, a collective of women’s groups, queer groups, NGOs, students, and academics working in the field of gender, sexuality and education, across India strongly recommend and reiterate that for all the recommendations given here, the policy and thereafter, the Government of India and State Governments must ensure that there is a proactive strengthening of democracy within educational institutions. The right to expression, liberty, equality and diversity are rights enshrined in the Constitution of India. We welcome that the DNEP 2019 as it states that it will promote constitutional values in education. However, for the implementation of this objective, changes in the content of the curriculum will not suffice. Constitutional