-The Hindu Even as the Maharashtra government congratulated itself for addressing issues of the transgender population in a draft policy announced earlier this month, one of the provisions of the policy, which states people being transgender can be prevented through medical care, has angered the marginalised community. By this, the government has failed to acknowledge that being transgender is a choice of many people, the community's empathisers say. The draft of the...

-The Indian Express Guwahati: First she was gangraped and almost beaten to death. Now this 16-year-old girl is facing numerous forms of harassment. After her family decided to shift her to another town, at least one school denied her admission in the new location. The family is also under pressure to withdraw the case, according to rights activists. "There seems to be no end to the woes of this hapless girl who...

-The Hindu India may have achieved a success rate of 88 per cent in treatment of tuberculosis - higher than the global treatment success rate of 85 per cent - but HIV-TB co-infection continues to be a cause of major concern, as the percentage of people infected with the twin infection increased substantially between 2010 and 2011. The percentage of TB patients tested for HIV increased nationally from 32 per cent...

-New Indian Express A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare has come down heavily on Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s ambitious plan to plug the huge shortfall in the rural healthcare sector with science graduates. Expressing surprise at the minister’s proposal, the panel headed by BSP MP Brijesh Pathak said, “Instead of providing doctors in villages, the Centre is coming up with a scheme to get...

-The Hindu As the world observed World Water Day last week, Bolivian water activist Pablo Solon narrates how his countrymen forced the repeal of a water privatisation attempt by the government What began as an ordinary citizen’s protest against water privatisation laid out the path for a bigger revolution that eventually paved way for Bolivia’s first indigenously elected government. With worldwide discussions for sustainable management of fresh water resources gaining ground in a...