-Citizen's Report on Year Two of the NDA-II Government 2020-2021: Promises and Reality, Civil Society Initiative, Coordinated by Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, released in July, 2021  “Promises & Reality – Citizens’ Report on the Year Two of the NDA II Government, 2020-21” is a collective work by eminent members and organisations of the Indian civil society. The report covers a wide array of concerns and issues in thematic areas including health,...

-Newsclick.in It also requests the President to declare the proposed Bill unconstitutional as it violates the right to equality guaranteed to all citizens of the country under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. A group of women, women’s organisation, academics, health and legal rights activities, health networks have submitted a memorandum to the President of India opposing the proposed Draft Uttar Pradesh (UP) Population Control, Stabilisation and Welfare Bill, 2021. The...

-The Hindu Lockdowns need to be guided by trade-offs between harsh and mild policies Data show that as of now 26.2% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Of them, only 1% live in low-income countries. By contrast, the richer nations, such as the U.S., Canada, Germany and Britain, registered above 50% vaccination by July 17. For India, the percentage of the adult population that...

-The Hindu Lower stunting among children with mothers who had access to free school lunches, shows data from 1993-2016. Girls who had access to the free lunches provided at government schools, had children with a higher height-to-age ratio than those who did not, says a new study on the inter-generational benefits of India’s midday meal scheme published in Nature Communications this week. Using nationally representative data on cohorts of mothers and their children...

-The Hindu The Uttar Pradesh government should understand that evidence backs the principle of informed free choice Many of us working in the field of public health and social development have been taken aback, if not downright shocked, by the recently announced draft Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021 that focuses exclusively on making a two-child norm a law, specifying various incentives and penalties for contravention. The burgeoning negative...