Do psychiatry patients have the right to access records of their treatment? While the Central Information Commission (CIC) directed a mental health hospital to provide this information to a patient, the hospital has moved court citing confidentiality. The Delhi High Court has given the Institute of Human Behaviour and Allied Sciences (IHBAS) a stay order against disclosing the information till the next hearing in September. The case pertains to a 32-year-old married...
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Forced into abortion 6 times, woman turns whistleblower-Parth Shastri
AHMEDABAD: She was forced to go for abortion not once but six times by her in-laws as they were obsessed for a male heir. Today she has used RTI to rescue several women who go through this ordeal many times in their lives. Amisha Bhatt, 36, from Vastrapur has exposed errant sonography clinics, how despite laws like Pre-Conception & Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act and measures to prevent sex determination...
More »The right to work-Ruhi Tewari
Difficult times call for difficult measures. Pushed into a corner by an unsustainable fiscal deficit and various sectors and programs (including the proposed food security legislation) screaming for a greater share of the budget pie, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in India has been forced to do what it might not have otherwise—reduce its marquee job guarantee scheme’s allocation in a big way for the first time. In one...
More »States slow on poverty census, deadline expires-Prasad Nichenametla
Uttar Pradesh, which supposedly has a high proportion of the country's poor, has not begun the job of enumerating them even three-and-a-half months after the first deadline set by the Centre lapsed. The project started in June 2011, with the target of completing the job by the end of 2011. The Centre then extended the deadline to April. Bihar has covered just 0.1% of the population. While there is no word from...
More »I&B Ministry defends itself on The Dirty Picture controversy-Aarti Dhar
Under sharp criticism for stalling the television premiere of The Dirty Picture on Sunday, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has said it was only following the directions of the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court, and the instructions issued by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). Prime time Sources in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry said the court order, issued on April 19 in response to a Public Interest Litigation...
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