-The Telegraph Patna: For eight years, Martha Dodarai has been walking 20km every day to reach a child for polio vaccination. Next month, her arduous journey will be recognised by the United Nations Foundation in New York. Dodarai, 43, who grew up in Latehar and works in Darbhanga, will represent frontline polio workers from around the world when she is feted at the Global Leadership Awards Dinner on November 6. A citation on the...

-The Hindustan Times Now that India's "polio-free" status is less than three months away -- the nation's last polio case of a two-year-old girl in the Panchla block of Howrah, West Bengal, was reported on January 13, 2011 -- the Centre is going the extra mile to stop re-infection. This year, 296 polio cases were reported till October 16. In 2012, there were 171 in the same period and 223 till December...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes has ordered the Uttar Pradesh government to pay Rs 1 lakh as compensation to the family of a tribal maidservant from Jharkhand, whose body was found hanging at her employer's Kaushambi home in Ghaziabad this June. The commission issued this directive after a detailed hearing of the case in which senior officials of Jharkhand state anti-trafficking unit and UP...

-Rediff.com Fairs are commonplace in the festive season but in tribal West Midnapore, which falls in the erstwhile Maoist-hit Jangalmahal area, it is child marriage fairs which are drawing large crowds. Such tribal child marriage fairs are held each year during this festive season. With the decline in Maoist violence, more tribals are fearlessly participating in the fairs being held this year, according to a report by women rights Non-Governmental Organisation 'Suchetna',...

-Newsclick.in Recent studies have shown that even as India fares better than many developing regions of the world on several indicators of growth and development such as GDP, per capita, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), literacy, life expectancy, etc., the number of malnourished children in India is significantly high. What explains this paradox? The Union Cabinet recently approved a multi-sectoral nutritional programme proposed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to reduce...