-The Hindu Business Line Experts to decide on jabs for children, booster dose The Centre will wait for the expert view to decide on Covid vaccination for children and booster shots but focus on scaling up the pace of inoculation, with the Health Ministry on Friday impressing on 11 States to ramp up their effort. The States that are a cause of concern are odisha, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Puducherry, Uttar Pradesh,...

-Down to Earth Most of the victims were targeted for “causing health issues or crop failure” Witch-hunts are still highly prevalent in 12 of odisha’s 30 districts — especially Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Malkangiri, Gajapati and Ganjam — a new report has claimed. Most victims of such superstitious practices were targeted for “causing health issues or crop failure”. Around 27 per cent cases were triggered by health issues in children, 43.5 per cent by...

-The Hindu Dire need for awareness and education regarding the superstition, says study conducted in odisha Health concerns continue to be a major underlying reason behind witchcraft related violence in odisha while there is a dire need for awareness and education among the people regarding superstition, says a study that analysed 102 incidents of violence. The study ‘Witch-Hunting in odisha’ conducted by State Commission for Women, odisha and Action Aid Association, a non-government...

After the release of the second phase data of the National Family Health Survey Fifth Round (NFHS-5), media commentators and experts have written that the Total Fertility Rate (TFR) for India has gone down just below the replacement-level fertility. The TFR for the entire nation was 2.2 in 2015-16, which decreased to 2.0 in 2019-21.   According to the United Nations, the replacement-level fertility is reached when the TFR of a...

-Down to Earth Srikumar Khadi’s claim to his land in odisha’s Sundergarh district is over a century old; but it still awaits recognition Srikumar Khadi’s great-grandparents moved to Bhuin-Jor from Dhamakpur in odisha’s Sundergarh district around 100 years ago. They were offered a small piece of land in the forest by Bhuin-Jor’s inhabitants. They settled in the forest with the passage of time and started using the land as a homestead. They also...