The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday warned India that feminization of its ageing population could lead to a rapid increase in its number of widows. Reacting to a TOI story that showed how the majority of India's elderly are now women, WHO's representative to India Dr Nata Menabde said the trend has significant consequences for the health of older women. She said, "Women's longer life-spans compared to men, combined with the...
More »SEARCH RESULT
As RTE turns two, monitoring division sans staff by Aarti Dhar
On Saturday last, as the government was highlighting with much fanfare the achievements under the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009 in the past two years, the RTE Division of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) — entrusted with the responsibility of monitoring the implementation of the Act — was virtually winding up. It all happened as the term of Kiran Bhatty, the...
More »70% infant deaths are in first month by Kounteya Sinha
Nearly 70% of infant deaths (within the first year of birth) in the country in 2010 took place during the first 29 days of life (neonatal). While Jammu & Kashmir has the dubious distiction of leading the list with 82.1% infant deaths being neonatal, it is followed by Maharashtra (78%), Himachal Pradesh (77.5%), Punjab (74.2%), West Bengal (74%), Rajasthan (73.4%) and Madhya Pradesh (70.8%). The Registrar General's latest data Sample Registration System...
More »When Home Is No Refuge for Women by Nilanjana S Roy
This month, two women’s stories, told courageously, helped to underline the reality of domestic violence in India. Nita Bhalla, a journalist, wrote for the BBC about being physically assaulted by her partner. Meena Kandasamy, a poet and writer on social issues, wrote movingly in Outlook, a national newsmagazine, of surviving a violent marriage: “My skin has seen enough hurt to tell its own story.” Both Ms. Kandasamy and Ms. Bhalla are,...
More »Climate Change Threatens the Poor in Cities by Manipadma Jena
India, like other Asian countries, has focused its climate change adaptation strategies on rural and urban areas while neglecting the urban fringes, say experts. Peri-urban areas are characterised by haphazard, accelerated expansion and are farthest from basic urban services and infrastructure, according to United Nations-Habitat’s ‘The State of Asian Cities 2010-11’. By 2020, of the projected 4.2 billion urban population of the world, 2.2 billion will be living in Asia, many...
More »