Missing school in spite “very good laws” for child protection: Unicef – Meghalaya

By GARDINER HARRIS, nytimes.com, February 25, 2013 Slideshow >> “We have very good laws in this country,” said Vandhana Kandhari, a child protection specialist at Unicef. “It’s our implementation that’s the problem.” […] Meghalaya lies in India’s isolated northeast, a stump of land squashed between China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Its people are largely tribal and … Read more

Implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act poses the biggest challenge for the education system of India – United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education

Dr. Kishore Singh, Foundation Day Lecture, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Education, 5th March 2012 New Delhi […] Monitoring the implementation of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, enacted by Parliament in August 2009, is an important part of the mandate of the Commission. The very title of … Read more

Tribal languages face extinction as “young people want to be part of the mainstream culture” – Uttarakhand

Excerpts from The Telegraph, Calcutta, Sunday , July 25 , 2010Death of a languageJad, a tribal language in Uttarakhand, is slowly going extinct. Hemchhaya Detravels to the tribe’s remote habitat and explains how many native languages around the world are dwindling under the onslaught of globalisationNarayan Singh Negi, leader of the Rong Ba tribe, in the … Read more

Forcing tribal peoples into the mainstream, exploitative ‘human safaris’ allowed to continue – Andaman Islands

Survival for tribal peoples, 5 March 2013 India’s Supreme Court today reportedly reversed its previous ‘interim order’ to ban ‘human safaris’ in the Andaman Islands, dealing a major blow to the campaign against the controversial tours. […] Alarm bells also rang when the Court reportedly asked the Andaman authorities ‘whether they wanted the Jarawa to be kept … Read more

India’s Supreme Court orders a “no-go” zone: protecting the Jarawa people’s dignity and health – Andaman & Nicobar

Dhananjay Mahapatra, Times Of India,  Jan 22, 2013 Supreme Court bars entry of tourists in Jarawa tribe habitat NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday wanted to know from Andaman & Nicobar Island administration whether it intended to keep in isolation the extremely endangered Jarawa tribe, which numbered just over 300, and banned all tourist movement in … Read more