-The Hindu Though there are improvements in employment and labour conditions on the work floor and in workers’ hostels in textile mills and garment factories in the State, “major labour abuses continue to occur,” according to the latest report by non-government watchdogs. The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) and the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) published a report, ‘Captured by cotton’, in May 2011 on the exploitation of Dalit...

-The Hindu The Indian Radiological and Imaging Association (IRIA) has called the recent order of the Union Health & Family Welfare Ministry restricting radiologists/sonologists from visiting more than two clinics within a district to perform ultrasound tests and making it mandatory to specify their consulting hours at each clinic as “unconstitutional, undemocratic and ill-thought”. At a Press conference here on Thursday, IRIA president Harsh Mahajan said: “This latest order will create a...

-The Hindu Every fourth girl married in rural Rajasthan and every fifth girl married in rural Bihar and Jharkhand is less than 18 years -- this despite several measures taken by the government to check child marriages in the country. Only 50 per cent deliveries are considered safe in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh and just about 45 per cent children are fully immunised in Uttar Pradesh. The percentage of men getting married...

-PTI Notwithstanding the tag of being a Naxal hotbed, tribals in this east Maharashtra district have shown the way to the rest by treating girls with love and dignity and not resorting to unethical practises like female foeticide. Even as the instances of female foeticide and conducting sex determination tests are rampant in some parts of the state, Gadchiroli is by and large an exception. As is evident in the 2011 Census figures,...

-Live Mint Uttar Pradesh emerges as the state having the worst healthcare indicators in the country Safe child deliveries, the use of contraceptives, and post-natal care for mothers are still largely alien concepts in India’s poorest states, a government survey has found. Uttar Pradesh (UP) emerged as the state having the worst health indicators in the country. The Annual Health Survey (2010-11) to assess the impact of the government’s flagship health programme, the National...