The Vidarbha region of Maharashtra which has gained notoriety for its farm suicides, is also reporting a high incidence of child deaths. Data compiled under the Right to Information (RTI) Act shows that in Yavatmal district alone 565 children below five died due to various causes between January and September 2011. In addition, the district reported 489 still births for the same period. Yavatmal is second only to Amravati district which...

The economic crisis, the ecological crisis and the food crisis are a reflection of an outmoded and fossilised economic paradigm. It is a paradigm that grew out of mobilising resources for the war by creating the category of “growth”. It is rooted in the age of oil and fossil fuels. It is fossilised because it is obsolete, a product of the age of fossil fuels. If we have to address...

-The Hindu The Karnataka High Court-appointed committee on malnutrition among children will submit a report to Chief Justice Vikramjit Sen by June 15, committee chairman N. K Patil has said. The eight-member panel visited Bidar on Monday and held discussions with officials. “Officials tell us that there are 68,000 malnourished children in the district. However, NGOs tell us the number is not less than 71,000. We have instructed the District health officer to...

Jairam Ramesh asks Azad not to wind up health survey Rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has urged health and family welfare minister Ghulam Nabi Azad not to discontinue the National Family Health Survey (NFHS), till a credible alternative is in place. In a 22 April letter, a copy of which has been reviewed by ‘Mint’, Ramesh questioned the comparability of data generated by the annual health survey (AHS) or the district level...

Rising trends in malnutrition among children under six here and in other cities have prompted the Maharashtra government to introduce an Urban malnutrition Mission from next month, official sources said. A quarter of children below six years in the city weighed at anganwadis are underweight, according to the latest monthly progress report (MPR) of the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). Non-governmental organisations point to a severe crisis of primary health...