People of dalit communities in the Gadarwara sub-division of district Narsinghpur in Madhya Pradesh are on the brink of starvation as they are facing harassment, economic sanctions and social boycott because they have refused to remove animal carcasses. A fact finding team of civil society organisations says that dalits at many places have been ‘imprisoned’ in their own houses as all entry and exit points have been blocked by the...

Several organisations working on issues surrounding HIV/AIDS on Monday made a vociferous demand for the immediate tabling of the HIV/AIDS Bill, 2009. The Bill was drafted and finalised in 2006 by the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry after country-wide consultations with stakeholders and sent to the Law Ministry. From 2007 to October 2009, the Law Ministry released four drafts, each omitting several critical provisions aimed at promoting and protecting...

The trend in new HIV infections around the world has slowed markedly over the past eight years, according to a United Nations report released today, which also notes that more people than ever before are living with the virus. The 2009 AIDS Epidemic Update reported that new HIV infections have been slashed by 17 per cent globally and that some 33.4 million people are now living with HIV, while AIDS-related...

Twenty-five children died in two villages of Jhabua district in October  Malnutrition, especially among tribals here, is much higher than in sub-Saharan Africa: Report ‘Children appear extremely weak, show malaria and dengue like symptoms and die within 4 days’ JHABUA (M.P.): Malnutrition has reached epidemic proportions in most parts of Madhya Pradesh, with children being the most vulnerable group. This, along with a general deterioration in the health conditions of children and...

The Nobel laureate Prof. Amartya Sen said on child domestic workers that “it is not economic poverty but rather political poverty that is depriving children their rights to education and pushing them to labour force. Our actions should aim at attacking this political poverty to bring education to the reach of children and free child domestic workers from the bondage.” The child domestic labour is common and traditional form of...