-The Indian Express According to National Crime Records Bureau data, a total of 24,771 dowry deaths have been reported in the country in past three years while 3.48 lakh cases have been registered under Section 498-A. Have the higher courts whittled down the severity of the anti-dowry harassment law by diluting mandatory FIR and arrest provisions, which now compel women to settle their cases rather than fighting it out? The Supreme Court...
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Hand-Washing and Public Health -Lekha D Bhat, Kesavan Rajasekharan Nayar, Hisham Moosan, Sanjeev Nair, and Muhammed Shaffi
-Economic and Political Weekly The importance of hand-washing in personal and public hygiene has evolved over the centuries. While the market with its countless number of soaps and hand-wash products for personal hygiene with the accompanying advertising has created a false sense of security, it is community hygiene implemented through public health measures that is really effective in the battle against disease. Lekha D Bhat (lekhabhatd@gmail.com) teaches at the Department of Social...
More »West Bengal tops chart in domestic violence
-The Times of India KOLKATA: Married women continue to be battered in their homes in Bengal. More than one in 10 cases of crime against women in 2014 was reported from the state. Bengal accounted for one in five cases of cruelty by the husband and relatives, far more than north Indian states like Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana, whose society has been typecast as brutally parochial against the more 'liberal'...
More »In Gujarat’s Patan district, separate anganwadis for Dalit children -Ritu Pradhan
-The Indian Express In Hajipur’s two anganwadis, which take in children between six months and six years, untouchability is one of the first life lessons they learn. Patan (Gujarat): A digit separates anganwadis 159 and 160 in Hajipur village of Gujarat’s Patan district but the divisions are far greater. Now that’s complicated math for a three-year-old. So one morning, a few weeks ago, Manavi Chamar walked towards anganwadi No. 160, lost...
More »Nutrition, effective cash transfers: How to ensure social protection -Ashim Choudhury
-Hindustan Times Small and marginal farmers comprise 85% of the land holdings in India. Social protection is a survival tool for the rural poor, who have no easy access to wage labour. India recognised the need for social protection early on and introduced a slew of social protection programmes like the National Rural Livelihoods Mission. The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) provides 100 days of assured labour wages...
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