-The Wire Science There is reason to celebrate the drop of India’s maternal mortality rate: the decline is consistent and continuous, indicating that the reproductive health of India’s women is getting better. However, a closer look at the state-level MMR data reveals that the all-India three-year average of maternal deaths camouflages the performance of some states. We can predict that the Empowered Action Group states and Assam will have to redouble their...

-Frontline.in A Parliamentary Standing Committee pulls up the Rural Development Ministry in its report on a “critical evaluation” of the MGNREGA and calls for more investment in the scheme. A Parliamentary Standing Committee report of the Ministry of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, tabled in February, strongly recommends enhancing the budget for implementation of work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005, higher wage rates, and increasing the number...

-Newsclick.in Across states, Adivasi women have been at the frontline when it has come to stand up for their lands. However, gender-based violence against them continues unabated till today. New Delhi: Adivasi women in India continue to pay the price for being defenders of their lands, shows a report by advocacy group Survival International released on the occasion of International Women's Day. The report titled ‘Brutalized for resistance: The assault on Indigenous women...

-ThePrint.in Starting with Vijay Kumar Bandhu’s initiative, demand for OPS has now become a key issue in UP, MP, Himachal, Andhra Pradesh & Jharkhand and features in the SP’s poll manifesto. New Delhi: Amongst the various poll promises covering all the party manifestos for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls, the entry of one new item in the Samajwadi Party’s programme is testament to a longstanding demand.  It is the widespread call to reinstate...

-Deccan Herald The life expectancy for Dalits and Adivasis is similar to those of the poorest countries in the world The life expectancies of Adivasis and Dalits in India are significantly lower than upper-caste Hindus, a new study reported using decade-old government data on 20 million individuals from nine states. The life expectancy differences of more than four years in Adivasis, three years in Dalits and one year among Muslims as against upper-caste...