An attempt to raise some questions on the nature of Article 15(5) brought in by the 93rd amendment. Some of the questions may have already been raised, argued and answered already. A little repetition doesn't harm, IMHO 🙂 Article 15(5) Nothing in this article or in sub-clause (g) of clause (1) of article 19 shall... Continue Reading →
New Livestock Rules: Background and Intent
Background: In 2014, a PIL was filed in the Supreme Court by animal rights activist Gauri Maulekhi asking the Court to direct the Government of India and various border states of India to take steps to prevent illegal trafficking of cattle to Nepal. Large scale trafficking of cattle to Nepal was taking place for sacrifice... Continue Reading →
Divorce Rates – Census 2011
Today noted Bollywood lyricist Javed Akhtar in a tweet claimed that as per Census 2011, the divorce rate amongst Hindus was 0.76% and that of Muslims was only 0.53% A little search on Google reveals that the All India Muslim Personal Law Board is also making similar claims about divorce rates being lower than Hindus,... Continue Reading →
NEP 2016: The Myth of Saffronisation
In April 2016, the TSR Subramanian Committee submitted its report on the New Education Policy (NEP) to the MHRD. Since then, there has been a steady stream of criticism of the report, most of which claim the report to be an attempt at "saffronisation of Indian education". Since the submission of the report, the Cabinet minister... Continue Reading →
The Basis for No-detention in RTE?
The RTE Act mandates 'no-detention' policy for all students up to Grade 8. This policy is also known as the 'social promotion' policy as against 'grade-retention' followed otherwise. A brief description of the two are as follows. Social Promotion: is the practice of promoting a student (usually a general education student, rather than a special education... Continue Reading →
Tribunals: Road to Increased Litigation?
One of the concerns with setting up of Tribunals for specific areas is that they will lead to increased litigation. This is because there is a natural expectation that dedicated bodies will deliver faster justice and hence litigants may be encouraged to approach the tribunals more often. In the report prepared by the Rajya Sabha... Continue Reading →
Rajasthan: RTE Schools Data
The Rajasthan Elementary Education Department has a good website where quite some data is available with regard to RTE. It maintains a separate Private School Portal where this data is made available. Information regarding the following are available Total number of registered (private) schools Total number of schools admitting RTE students Total number of RTE... Continue Reading →
A Tale of Two Dosa Joints
Year 2020: In the quite little town of Hindupura, there were two famous restaurants that were frequented by most of the residents in order to satiate their palate. The first restaurant, known as 'Dosa Darshini', was well known for serving the best masala dosas in the region. The second restaurant, known as 'Cafe-de-dosa', served a... Continue Reading →
Evolution of the NCMEI
The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) is a statutory body established by the Government of India in the year 2004 via an ordinance. Subsequently, the ordinance was converted into an Act by Parliament in 2005. In the years 2006 and 2010, two amendment Acts were passed by Parliament, and the current NCMEI Act... Continue Reading →
Government Support for Madrassas & Veda Pathashalas
Edit: 26th April: Please see comment from Prathisthan member. The institution gets Rs 30 crores annually. I am retaining the article to highlight the difference in the amounts granted. But the conclusion below about funding being stopped is wrong. --------- Today the Minister of Minority Affairs announced 1 lakh madrassas in the country will be... Continue Reading →
