Her face breaks into a smile when Rukhma Lakshman Kale sees herself on the giant screen in a Unicef film screened at the release of the State of The World's Children report. In the film, the 27-year-old mother of one is shown engaging with girls in village Antapur in Maharashtra's Chandrapur district. Rukhma is a source of strength for these girls, 14 of whom she's ensured go to school. In India...

Adolescent girls face nutritional problems than boys of that age: report Having more than 243 million adolescents – the highest in the world – the key challenge that India faces is ensuring the nutritional, health and educational needs of this population, particularly girls. Over the past two decades, rapid economic growth – with real gross domestic product averaging 4.8 per cent between 1990 and 2009 – has lifted millions out of...

Having lost faith in the government for not conferring them tribal status, the Jhodia community in Rayagada district has threatened not to share their details to the enumerators during the census. The Jhodia population stands around 50,000 who live in around 85 villages, particularly in Rayagada's Kasipur block and eke out a living by collecting forest produce and engaging themselves as daily-wage labourers. "For the past several years, we are...

The government has a plan to reach welfare to the poor without wasting money. It wants to put hard cash in their hands instead of spending on welfare programmes. To begin with, it wants to end the public distribution system of food grain and give money directly to the people. Its logic: the new system of cash transfer will plug leakages and save an enormous amount of money. But is it...

Urgent and sustained efforts needed to curb female foeticide were discussed at a two-day workshop on “female foeticide: rights of the girl child, problems and solutions,” held at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) here on Friday and Saturday. The workshop was organised to mark the National Girl Child Week from January 24 to 31. “The sex ratio in the country is decreasing at an alarming rate. The educated, upper classes,...