-Outlook The West Bengal government today decided to financially compensate victims of crime against women, including rape and trafficking. "The scheme is aimed at compensating victims of crime against women. The guidelines have been drawn up mainly to pay compensation to victims of rape and human trafficking," Panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee told reporters after a cabinet meeting presided over by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee gave approval to the scheme. The compensation included Rs...

-The Hindustan Times Lawyer and education activist Ashok Aggarwal has spent over a decade challenging private schools that violate laws, cheat parents and deny students – especially the poor -- an opportunity to study. But two years after the Right to Education Act came into effect requiring private schools to set aside 25% free seats for students from economically weaker sections (EWS), Aggarwal isn’t worrying about the law’s implementation.   “Most top schools...

-PTI Bihar State Human Rights Commission today took suo motu cognizance of reports in different newspapers about cases of removal of uteruses purportedly under Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY). "They (the cases) do not appear to be sporadic incidents; rather they seem to have been done in a systematic manner as if they were the result of conspiracy and part of some racket. The reports refer to the districts of Saran, Sitamarhi,...

-The Hindu The Centre on Tuesday said Bihar and Chhattisgarh had initiated investigation into the alleged removal of uteruses of BPL women as part of a fraud to corner insurance money. Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad laid a copy of his statement, made in response to a calling attention motion sponsored by a host of MPs led by Lok Jan Shakti Party president Ram Vilas Paswan, in the Rajya...

-The Indian Express Patna: Over 16,000 hysterectomies (surgical removal of the uterus), most of them “unnecessary”, have been reported at private hospitals across Bihar during the last one year allegedly to “avail insurance benefit” under the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna.   The RSBY was launched by the Centre in April 2008. Preliminary investigation by Samastipur, Madhubani and Chhapra district authorities, which reported the maximum number of complaints, showed 10,000 hysterectomies took place in these...