-IANS As many as 7,563 rape cases were reported in Jharkhand during the ten-year period since the formation of the state in November 2000, a local NGO Jharkhand Human Rights Movement (JHRM) has reported. In a report titled "Jharkhand Human Rights Report 2001-2010", the human rights group said women in the state were easy prey to crimes like rape, witchcraft and dowry. The report, released here in the form of a Book,...

An unnecessary controversy has been started by the release of the poverty estimates of 2009-10 by the planning commission. The controversy, which was entirely avoidable, was allowed to go on because of the poor handling of the issue by the planning commission. It is unfortunate that the planning commission was less than willing to own the Tendulkar committee report which was submitted in December 2009 and accepted by the commission...

-The Hindu The Campaign Against Sex Selective Abortion (CASSA) has submitted a memorandum to political parties and the State government seeking steps to improve the child sex ratio and sex ratio at birth. Representatives of the CASSA, Human Rights Foundation and Centre for Child Rights Development, met mediapersons here on Tuesday to explain their demands. “In 2001, the mortality rate for girl children was high in 11 districts. Despite the Pre-Conception and...

-IANS The Calcutta High Court Thursday granted bail to AMRI Hospital director S K Todi, who was Booked with 15 others in connection with the fire tragedy at the medical centre that claimed 94 lives last December.  "A division bench of the Calcutta High Court comprising Justices A K Roy and A K Ray granted bail to S K Todi. The investigation is complete and the chargesheet has been filed so the...

-Economic and Political Weekly India’s fast food products must be subject to mandatory labelling. The role of fast or “junk” food with its concentration of fats, sugar and salt in the rapid multiplication of non-communicable lifestyle diseases has been the subject of countless studies over the past few decades, especially in the west. (A classic Book from the United States with a title that says it all is Fast Food Nation.) Now, the...