Itumeleng Makgato and Boikhutso Mokoto, both Bachelor of Commerce final-year students at Wits University in Johannesburg, are on a mission to empower any female student who feels she needs help in making herself heard.

The Centre for Science, Education, Exchange for Sustainable Development (SeeSD) is home to a group of educational mentors, working hard to kindle an interest in science, technology and innovation amongst schoolchildren—notably young girls.

We at the Graça Machel Trust know that girls face a distinctive set of barriers to learning, especially when they reach post-primary levels of education, such as lack of financial resources, sexual abuse, poor hygiene and unsafe school environments. Until now, education initiatives have not been multi-dimensional enough and are still found wanting in relation to the competencies they deliver. Most are still focused on the narrow mainstream educational skills of literacy and numeracy, leaving out personal, social and economic proficiencies that many women and girls need to survive and secure stable livelihoods. Moreover, if basic education is to be inclusive, the barriers that prevent enrolment and cause school dropout must be eliminated.

The slums of Lagos are dotted with single-parent households, most of them headed by strong-willed women facing widespread discrimination as a result of divorce, separation or widowhood.

“It is time we focus on women.” These are the renowned words of Sanjit “Bunker” Roy, the founder of Barefoot College. Set up in 1972, this extraordinary college located in the village of Tilonia, 110km south-west of Jaipur, India, teaches rural women—many of them illiterate—how to fabricate solar panels, lights and photovoltaic circuits. With these new capabilities, accredited “Solar Mamas” return home to shed light on their communities.

It’s now been four years since Athina Marmorat decided to take on the fight against social inequality at her own level by founding Rêv’Elles. This association supports and mentors young women from deprived areas and helps them tap into their potential.

As well as educating and training on traditional agricultural methods, ‘We are the solution! Celebrate African family farming’ works in other domains; helping to set up local networks and empowering rural women to take key roles in promoting and changing the mentality towards natural products. In doing so, the movement promotes agro-ecological farming and women’s rights. Dao is convinced that if women step up the the plate, they could persuade and rally men into accepting agro-ecological practices, especially in farming families.

With the use of internet and social media surging, Bangladesh has experienced a rise in gender-based cyber harassment. Despite comprising only about one-fifth of the nation’s social-media users, in 2016 alone, 73 percent of Bangladeshi women and girls online fell victim to this type of cybercrime.

India plans to spray water over its capital, New Delhi, to combat toxic smog that has triggered a pollution emergency, officials said

New Delhi banned all construction, barred lorries from entering the city and announced stringent restrictions on private car use

With the air pollution in the Indian capital worsened further yesterday, Delhi city government ordered the closure of all schools in India's

India arrested a teenager yesterday for allegedly slitting the throat of a seven-year-old schoolmate in hopes the murder would lead to an

A video allegedly showing security staff of India’s IndiGo airline manhandling a passenger went viral, prompting the federal government to launch an investigation into the incident involving the country’s biggest airline.

A mild earthquake jolts different parts of the country including the capital Dhaka.

‘Bandhan Express’, the new passenger train service between Khulna and Kolkata, has been scheduled to be inaugurated on November 9 in a bid to ease communication between two neighbouring countries.

Among the 180 countries represented in the Paradise Papers, India ranks 19th in terms of the number of names. In all, there are 714 Indians in the tally.

The death toll from an explosion at a coal-fired power plant in northern India has risen to 29, the company said yesterday, as three more

India's elite anti-terror probe agency has filed a charge sheet in a trial court in Mumbai saying controversial Islamic preacher Zakir Naik

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday called for a debate on internal democracy in political parties, asserting that the growth

Zakir Naik has promoted enmity and hatred between different religious groups through his public speeches, say Indian investigators in their charge sheet against the controversial Islamic preacher.