Kunal Kohli writes about the health crisis confronting children in India

Lara Shankar talks about an effort in Mumbai rallying for rights of children through advocacy and volunteering.

A recent malnutrition study conducted by government agencies (under ICDS progfram) shows about 5000 children in the district of Ghazipur alone suffer from severe malnutrition (grade 4).

Children's organization from Bangalore Born Free Art and Pakistani organizations Punjab Lok Sujag & Lok Rahs plan a bicycle trip from Bangalore to Lahore.

On 8^th March, United Nations agencies, governments and non-governmental organisations across the world celebrated “International Women’s Day”. But in the United Nations Human Rights Council there was silence about the lack of protection for the victims of trafficking. An Asian Center for Human RIghts report.

A child of a laborer working at a construction site on campus was bitten by a snake and died because the campus hospital refused to attend. Like any other work place, should the IIT administration not be responsible for safety at the worksite – surely, the laborer is not responsible for unsafe conditions around?

In the wake of the Nithari incident, Indian Express reported that social organisations have decided to take out marches and processions in the most sensitive districts and then end them at New Delhi to bring the issue of stringent rules on child safety before the rule makers.

In the first week of October 2006, the enquiry committee constituted by Commissioners of Supreme Court to investigate the Hunger and Malnutrition deaths, while their visit to the villages of Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh found four children in Ranipur village – Bansi, Sonu, Sukhlal and Kiran – as severely malnourished.

Through many real stories, M. R. Narayan Swamy, with Indo-Asian News Service, provides a glimpse of the war that ravages Sri Lanka.

While this is not a complete description of Bhavnagar, it is a description of certain poor sections of the city, that depend significantly on recycling and extracting components from the ‘trash’ that comes out of the ship building industry in Alang. A report from a visit to child rights work in Bhavnagar.

Mariana Baabar writes in The Outlook: "Rescripting history is Musharraf's homage to 'secular' Jinnah"

While LTTE has been known to recruit children to serve in the armed conflict, a new UN report has also charged the Sri Lankan government of engaging in similar practices.

In the month of July 2006, the Indian Government brought an amendment in the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986 banning the employment of children under 14 years of age as domestic servants or servants or in dhabas, restaurants, hotels, motels, teashops, resorts, spas or in other recreational centres, effective from 10 October 2006. Bachpan Bachao Andolan now starts a campaign to help implement this.

The government dropped the Right to Education bill. Where was the vehemence?

A law was passed banning the employment of children as domestic servants or servants or in dhabas (roadside eateries), restaurants, hotels, motels, teashops, resorts, spas or in other recreational centers, effective from 10 October 2006.

Three-and-a-half-year-old Anshu will be going to a public school from tomorrow. The passage has not been easy and doors were slammed on her but her father, social worker Rajiv Kumar Sharma, did something that shows the way to other parents. With Delhi government dragging its feet on implementing the quota for the poor, Sharma used the Right to Information Act.

The state of Uttaranchal currently has no comprehensive policy on or rights of children. This is a report by 16yr old Tushar, who attended a conference with children from the mountains focusing on this issue.

Pushpa Achanta writes about a unique celebration of Ayudha Puja in Bangalore last 11th October 2005, pointing out that connectedness between people of different religions is being built everyday through our day to day lives, our celebrations, our humanness.

Pakistani peace activists decided to join in paying respects to Nehru and the celebrations of Children’s Day in India by organizing and participating in a teleconference with a group of children in Jaipur, Rajasthan. This picture is from the site in Hyderabad.

Teesta Setalvad’s note written on September 7th, 2005 addressed to CABE critiques its processes and its recommendations.

Shanta Sinha gives out a call for a National Campaign to amend Child Labour Act for complete elimination of child labour in India.

Dr. Syed Ali Wasif reviews violence against children and child labor in various forms prevalent in Pakistan.

Early afternoon on 17th June, about 10 children from Hyderabad, Pakistan and as many from Lucknow, India talked with each other about the need for peace between the two nations, inviting the other to come spend time with them as well as singing songs.

June 12th, 2005 is World Day against Child Labour, with this year's focus being on children working in mines and quarries.

We demand that the Government of India take the following steps immediately to get children out of mines and back into safe, nurturing environments

India has completed 50 years of Independence. Today, the country has an estimated 70-80 million child labourers. In other words, there are 70-80 million children prematurely leading adult lives.

There is no one way in which children are bonded, no one story that includes the pain, the suffering and the exploitation. Each community, each family that is tied to bonded labor has its own problems.

The first issue of the journal Education Review, looks at the gender biases that affect education of the girl child in India. This is an excerpt from an article in the journal.

In India.

Really.

A note from the blogsite of Dilip D'Souza, presented here with his permission.

Reports of abuse of Tsunami victims have presented a sordid hue to the relief efforts in Sri Lanka.

India has one of the poorest sex ratios in the world and among the most skewed literacy rates. Statisticians, policy makers and arm-chair analysts have presented numerous arguments on how this relates to the economic growth of the country, to the overall literacy rates or government spending on literacy.

Before it was in fashion to be talking about peace between India and Pakistan, a Pakistani physician, having immigrated to the US, was exploring what was possible.

A Blackboard from a school in South India. Notice the columns listing the number of Schedule Castes, Schedule Tribes, and Most Backward Class students attending school. Melli Annamalai explores the implications of caste in Modern India

Shristi in Bangalore is a part of India's response to the needs of special children.