A 'savage preference for males' leads to the killing of 7 lakh girls by their parents in the mother's womb each year in India, according to a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) member. NHRC member Satyabrata Pal also said that 25 percent of the children who see the light of day are underweight at birth, and 1.72 million children die before they turn one. 'The UNFPA (United Nations Population Fund) fears 2,000...

Women continue to reap less benefits from employment in agriculture than men in rural areas, and the recent global financial and food crises have slowed down progress towards gender equality in farming-related labour, three United Nations agencies said in a joint report unveiled today. According to the report, compiled by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), women...

‘The least that every worker in field and factory is entitled to is a minimum wage which will enable him to live in modest comfort, and humane hours of labour which do not break his strength or spirit...,’ Jawaharlal Nehru declared stirringly in his presidential address to Congress in Lahore in 1929. Eight decades later, the Union government of free India resolved that it would not pay the minimum wage...

The Centre has asked Dispur to take urgent steps to bring down Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) and Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in the state. Sources said the Union health ministry had expressed concern over the key health indicators, IMR and MMR, which continue to worry the government despite the achievements made under the National Rural Health Mission. While the IMR is 58 per 1,000, the MMR in Assam is over 400...

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has found several inadequacies in the implementation of the Swarnajayanthi Gram Swarozgar Yojana (self-employment scheme) by the State government, including inadequate coverage of the SC/ST and disabled beneficiaries and ineffective monitoring mechanism. The report of the CAG (Panchayat Raj institutions) - 2009, tabled in the Assembly on Tuesday, points out that non-utilisation of grants on time resulted in the loss of assistance to...