It brings unbearable agony and distress to parents, when a new born child or a young one dies in the family. Fortunately, the latest available data shows that the proportion of infant deaths (less than 1 year of age) in total deaths has fallen between 2004-06 and 2010-13. A similar declining trend could be observed in the proportion of under-5 deaths (less than 5 years of age). The leading causes of...

-The Indian Express We have turned our back to the intense food and drinking water distress across states India has transformed spectacularly in innumerable ways in the last two decades. One of the least noted changes is in the way the country — governments, the press and people — respond to drought and food scarcities. Back in the late-1980s, many states across India were reeling under back-to-back droughts for three consecutive years, not...

-The Indian Express ICDS, the primary scheme targeting malnutrition, needs to be broadened with the help of the National Nutrition Mission. Every once in a while, a discussion or debate starts on malnutrition. On a debated issue, precision is desirable. Initially, there were several discussions on the word “malnutrition”, which can technically mean over-nutrition, as well as under-nutrition. But now, there is global consensus on three terms. First, for a given reference age,...

-Frontline   Swagata Raha, a senior legal researcher (Consultant) at the Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University, Bengaluru, said the Juvenile Justice Bill, 2015, “incorrectly assumes that children are competent to stand trial as adults”. Currently pursuing Master of Studies in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford, Swagata Raha worked extensively on the campaign against the Juvenile Justice Bill and has written extensively...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The "Mercedes" class left squirming by Delhi's odd-even car rationing today received sympathy from the Supreme Court, which suggested that Metro trains earmark premium seats where the affluent can sit "dignified" at a price. "Mr Kumar, car owners who are coming (to the Delhi Metro), they must get some space to sit," Chief Justice T.S. Thakur told solicitor-general Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre in a case filed...