A new study looking at cancer mortality in 2010 in India found a high 71 per cent (3,95,400) deaths in people between 30 and 69 years. Cancer accounted for 8 per cent of the 2·5 million total male deaths and 12 per cent of the 1·6 million total female deaths in the same age group. The high mortality rate during the middle age is very different from the developed countries,...

This month, two women’s stories, told courageously, helped to underline the reality of domestic violence in India. Nita Bhalla, a journalist, wrote for the BBC about being physically assaulted by her partner. Meena Kandasamy, a poet and writer on social issues, wrote movingly in Outlook, a national newsmagazine, of surviving a violent marriage: “My skin has seen enough hurt to tell its own story.” Both Ms. Kandasamy and Ms. Bhalla are,...

Tata Memorial Hospital, Lancet, Centre for Global Health Research and University of Toronto jointly releases study findings on cancer mortality in India in 2010.  The findings are:  There were 5.56 lakh cancer deaths in India in 2010.  71% (3.95 lakhs) of these deaths occurred in people aged 30-69 years (2 lakh men and 1.95 lakh women).  Cancer deaths accounted for 6% of deaths across all ages, but among the 30-69 years age group, this...

The proposed amendments to marriage laws lack the detail to guarantee women their full due   The cabinet’s decision to clear a bill providing for amendment to marriage laws has evoked mixed reactions within women’s organisations. While the introduction of the notion of matrimonial property within Indian family laws is a welcome move, the manner in which it is being done seems hasty and without due consideration of its implementability. There is...

Travelling in rural India always yields rich insights into how poor women struggle to provide that little extra, in terms of food, for the family meal. It was in the village of Vijaypura – in the drought prone Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh – that I came across Bharati, a 39-year-old farm woman and homemaker, working her everyday magic by laying out slices of potato and whole green chillies on the...