Brinda Karat

THE sexual assault on a woman journalist by Tarun Tejpal, editor-in-chief of Tehelka magazine, has once again brought to fore the need for stronger institutional mechanisms to investigate complaints of sexual assault including adequate prosecution of perpetrators. 

THROUGH a memorandum submitted to M Mangapati Pallam Raju, the minister for human resource development in the government of India, on November 7, 2011, the Students Federation of India (SFI) brought to his notice “the appalling response of the Pondicherry University (PU) administration to the serious incidents of sexual harassment, ragging and intimidation of girl students in the university.” Instead of punishing the perpetrators of the above-mentioned crimes, the memorandum noted, “the PU administration has chosen to suspend the complainants and the students who stood by them.”

Tripura Tops in Literacy Rate Rahul Sinha

TRIPURA recently surged ahead of Kerala to achieve the top position in the literacy chart in India. The state’s literacy rate now stands at 94.65 percent. In comparison, the literacy rate in Mizoram is 88.80 percent and in Kerala 93.91 percent, as per the available records. Thus, according to the latest figures, the state of Tripura now tops the chart of states in terms of literacy. This is indeed a great achievement.