-The Times of India How does a preference for boys over girls skew the child sex ratio? Does the neglect of a girl child result in a dip in the sex ratio? How does one quantify neglect? These are some of the issues explored in a recently released report, 'World of Indian Girls-2014', authored by academicians from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences for the NGO Save the Children. The report, which...

Child sex ratio (CSR) in India has declined from 927 in 2001 to 918 in 2011 (girls per 1,000 boys), according to a new report entitled Missing Girls: Mapping the Adverse Child Sex Ratio in India (Census 2011). Of the total 640 districts in the country, 429 districts have experienced decline in CSR (see the link below).   Of these 429 districts, 26 districts exhibited drastic decline (of 50 points or more),...

-The Hindu But immunisation record worsens India's more developed states, especially its southern states, have seen improvements in child nutrition over the last five years, but have a patchy record on immunisation, new official data shows. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has begun releasing data for the fourth round of the District Level Health Survey, which covers all of the country, except the eight backward northern states known as the Empowered...

-The United Nations One in three known victims of human trafficking is a child, and girls and women are particularly targeted and forced into "modern slavery," according to the 2014 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, released today by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Vienna. "Unfortunately, the report shows there is no place in the world where children, women and men are safe from human trafficking," said...

-The Indian Express The aftermath of the terrible deaths of women who underwent sterilisation surgeries in Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh has been full of stories about what actually happened. Spurious drugs and an overenthusiastic doctor who cut corners on ensuring quality vie for immediate blame. Beyond these, many have spoken about pervasive biases of gender and caste that wreak havoc on the lives of poor women, and also of family planning policies...