The national pass rate has fallen to 58.83%, the lowest in 21 years. Over half a million students failed, while 77,000 fewer than last year achieved the highest marks (GPA-5). Scholars and educators are questioning the reasons for the crisis. Catholic schools are spared, although they too have recorded a (minimal) decline in results.
Originally from southern India, the ethnic Malaiyaha Makkal families, risk losing their home. "We have nowhere to go,” they told AsiaNews. After decades of working without social security protections, the new owner, a resident of the United States, announced the sale of the land and ordered the residents to leave within three months. For the NGO Voice of Plantation People, it is a question of humanity.
The controversy over the Islamic veil at St. Rita's Public School in Palluruthy continues: the student has finally left the school. The family: ‘Great psychological distress’. The Catholic newspaper Deepika defended the management's position on the dress code. Minister Sivankutty: ‘Kerala supports secular values. No institution violates constitutional rights’.
The northern Indian state has arbitrarily denied land rights granted under the Forest Rights Act of 2006. The legal process has reached a stalemate, but the case of the village of Kajaria has reignited the debate over the slow implementation of the regulations and the broken promises to indigenous peoples, for whom forests are not only a source of subsistence but also the basis of their identity.
Seven out of every 100 couples on the island are related by blood. The figure drops to 4% among Sinhalese and Muslims, but reaches almost 25% among Tamils. Among the most sensitive diseases is thalassaemia, present in 50% of children born to blood relatives among the Tamils. The defence of the land and ancestral traditions fuel marriages within the family.
Pakistan and Afghanistan have agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire, but tensions remain over the TTP’s presence in Afghanistan, which could soon spark renewed violence. Humanitarian groups have spoken out against yesterday's Pakistani airstrikes, which caused scores of civilian casualties. Pakistan’s decision to keep the border closed and expel Afghan refugees are worsening the humanitarian crisis.
