-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a worrying trend, condom use in India has dropped by 38% in six years - from 2.6 crore in 2006-07 to 1.6 crore in 2010-11. Health ministry data shows that 21 of the 28 states, including Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, have registered a decline in the use of this contraceptive, setting off alarms among policymakers. Health experts said with India's population is tipped to...
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When the rains don’t go away-Nagraj Adve
-The Hindu A warmer world may be leading to a delayed withdrawal of the Indian monsoon, hitting crop yield and affecting the livelihoods of small farmers and agricultural workers The joys of a bountiful southwest monsoon are increasingly changing to anxiety as the rains unseasonally drag on in many parts of India. "The normal rains should be from June 1 to mid-September. In fact it usually reduces by August 15, and is...
More »A third of Western Ghats to get protective cover-Nitin Sethi
-The Hindu The area will turn into a ‘no-go zone' for mining and thermal power plants The Environment Ministry has decided to turn approximately 60,000 square kilometres of the Western Ghats across six States into an Ecologically Sensitive Area (ESA), banning mining, quarrying, thermal power plants and polluting industries over the entire range. All other projects would be allowed only with the prior consent of gram sabhas (village councils) in the zone. The...
More »Look Who’s Afraid of Women in Love-Seema Chishti
-The Indian Express There is nothing on record to prove that the Muzaffarnagar riots were sparked off by a Hindu girl being molested by a Muslim boy, or a romantic relationship between two such individuals, but there is little doubt that the rhetoric of protecting "our women", our bahu-beti, from Muslim young men, fanned the swirling flames of violence. The bogey of "love jihad", which the imagination of the Hindu right...
More »The Throneless...-Uttam Sengupta
-Outlook The faecal matter hits the rotary blades, politically-but we're still staring at a sanitation disaster "Indians defecate everywhere. They defecate mostly besides the railway tracks. But they also defecate on the beaches; they defecate on the hills; they defecate on the river banks; they defecate on the streets; they never look for cover." -V.S. Naipaul An Area of Darkness, 1964 Not...
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