Nearly 70% of infant deaths (within the first year of birth) in the country in 2010 took place during the first 29 days of life (neonatal). While Jammu & Kashmir has the dubious distiction of leading the list with 82.1% infant deaths being neonatal, it is followed by Maharashtra (78%), Himachal Pradesh (77.5%), Punjab (74.2%), West Bengal (74%), Rajasthan (73.4%) and Madhya Pradesh (70.8%). The Registrar General's latest data Sample Registration System...
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Women take the lead in India's grey march by Kounteya Sinha
Now, a majority of India's elderly are women. The Registrar General of India's (RGI) latest data from the Sample Registration System (SRS), 2010, has confirmed feminization of India's elderly. The data sent to the Union health ministry on Saturday shows that the percentage of women in the age group of 60 years and above is higher in 17 out of the 20 large states. It is as high as nearly...
More »Poverty 'down', but not the hungry-Subodh Varma
Even as the debate rages on whether poverty measurement in India is accurate, a recent report on nutritional intake of Indians has come up with a chilling conclusion: two thirds of the country's population is eating less than what is required. Even more worrying is that this trend continues despite a healthy economic growth rate over several years, and despite several mega programmes of nutrition delivery to children. Experts believe that...
More »Fertility rate in India drops by 19% in 10 yrs by Kounteya Sinha
India's total fertility rate (TFR) - the average number of children expected to be born per woman during her reproductive years - has fallen by19% over the past decade. Among bigger states, the percentage decline in TFR during this period the last decade varied from as high as 28% in Punjab to 5.6%in Kerala. Maharashtra saw the second highest dip in TFR between 2000-2010 at 26.9%, followed by Haryana and Andhra...
More »Babus as information commissioners: RTI activists see red by Sukhbir Siwach & Anita Singh
RTI activists in Haryana have decided to protest against the appointment of bureaucrats as state information commissioners (SIC) directly after their superannuation "without transparency". They have also planned to move the Punjab and Haryana high court against the appointment of outgoing chief secretary, Urvashi Gulati as the SIC. Urvashi Gulati's husband Naresh Gulati is chief state information commissioner while her elder sister, Meenaxi Anand Chaudhry had also been state information...
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