India's Supreme Court has granted bail to leading public health specialist and human rights activist, Dr Binayak Sen. In December a court in the central state of Chhattisgarh sentenced to life in prison for helping Maoist rebels. The lower court had found him guilty of carrying messages and setting up bank accounts for the rebels, who are active in large parts of India. Rights groups in India and abroad had called on the...

More than 7,200 babies are stillborn every day 1.8 million stillbirths occur in just 10 countries India has the dubious distinction of having the highest number of stillbirths in the world. This finding comes after the country recorded the worst female child sex ratio ever (Census 2011). India figures at the top of 10 countries that have the highest number of stillbirths, according to the Stillbirth series published in the British medical journal,...

It is estimated that India lost 1.8 million children under five in 2008. That is more than 200 child deaths every hour, each day, or more than three deaths every minute. Out of about 25 million babies born every year in India, one million die. Most who survive do not get to grow up and develop well. About 48 per cent are stunted (sub-normal height) and 43 per cent are...

Bihar did not record a single stillbirth in 2008 — death of an unborn child in mother's womb during the last trimester of pregnancy (after 28 weeks' gestation). Even before you could sigh in disbelief, truth to be told that India tremendously under reports stillbirth figures. According to the sample registration survey in 2008, conducted by the registrar general's office, the country recorded eight stillbirths per 1,000 births — a highly improbable...

While mass predilections in Bihar are still veering towards the male child, the Nitish Kumar government will be pleased with the provisional Census 2011 data for the State, which has indicated a 20 per cent jump in the State's female literacy rate. As per the report, literacy rates for women in Bihar have soared from 33.12 per cent in 2001 to 53.33 per cent this census year. The State's overall literacy rate...