A number of welfare schemes for women launched, says Minister The Laadli girl child welfare scheme has proved to be a big success with 140,006 girls being registered under it in 2009-10 and as many as 17,085 girls receiving the final maturity payment through their bank accounts, Delhi Social Welfare Minister Kiran Walia said here on Tuesday. Speaking about the performance of various social welfare schemes during the year, Prof. Walia said...

Indian civil society was dismayed and horror-struck when human rights activist Dr Binayak Sen, who has spent over three decades caring for the poor in tribal areas of central India, was sentenced to life imprisonment for ‘sedition’ along with two others, Piyush Guha and Narayan Sanyal by a Raipur Sessions Court judge.  Protests are taking place everywhere in the country and the members of India’s vibrant civil society, peoples’ movements,...

From No. 2 in the last three years, Bengal has crawled to No. 1 — in the number of rape complaints in the country. The state that was once regarded one of the safest for women has recorded 3,029 Rape cases till October this year, displacing Madhya Pradesh that had the highest number in the past three years. According to provisional data being compiled by the women and child development ministry, Bengal...

Carry red chilli spray to feel safe in Delhi, a doctor and her 28 friends are telling women.Through camps in colleges and neighbourhoods, the group has over the past fortnight been spreading awareness about the use of chilli powder as a weapon of self-defence.“Carry a pack of red chillies in the bag and blind an assailant,” said Seema Malik, a doctor who has launched the Mirchi Jhonk campaign, possibly inspired...

Union home minister P Chidambaram remark blaming the spiralling crime graph in the capital on migrant population comes at a time when in most cases, local people are involved and new gangs are emerging in Delhi's crime scene. A look at the statistics available with Delhi Police gives an entirely different picture than what was portrayed by the home minister. More than 83% of people involved in crime this year were...