-The Hindu The Rajasthan State Commission for Protection of Child Rights is developing a protocol for elimination of child labour with its contents devoted to various aspects of child trafficking, children being forced into hazardous occupations and rehabilitation of rescued child labourers. Panel chairperson Deepak Kalra said at a workshop on child labour here on Monday that the protocol would be submitted to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot with request for urgent action...

Mention crime, and murder and rape are the first to strike the mind. But there is another crime that arguably causes similar trauma, yet goes almost unnoticed: abduction.  The felony rose by 77% in six years, from 23,991 in 2006 to 42,580 in 2011, according to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). In comparison, murders remained around the 34,000 mark in the corresponding period and rapes rose by 24% (from 19,348...

India has decided to throw its weight behind the civil society on issues related to family planning, and articulate its rights-based approach at a summit scheduled in London in the next few weeks. India has kept away from planning family policies since the 70s, and incorporated population stabilisation programmes in the health policies focussing on sexual and reproductive health rights and women's empowerment. While the Centre has discouraged a targeted approach...

-Open the Magazine   Villagers saw him cleaning his undergarments stained with goat blood and thought he had a sexual disease. But Arunachalam Muruganantham was only trying to make a smart, cheap sanitary pad for his wife I am perhaps the only man to have ever worn a sanitary napkin. I am the only man who understands what a woman endures during those days. The wetness. The discomfort. The constant fear of stains....

The government is trying to simplify the process of adopting children so that it can be wrapped up in two to three months, officials said. Adoptions now often take more than a year to complete, the red tape and delays scaring off many couples. A committee formed by the women and child development ministry is drafting amendments to the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection) Act to streamline adoption procedures, introduce time-bound approvals...