The World Health Organisation (WHO) has adopted a resolution that focuses on the global burden of mental disorders and the need for a comprehensive, coordinated response from health and social sectors at the country level. United States of America and Switzerland supported the resolution moved by India at the just-concluded 130{+t}{+h}executive board meeting of the WHO. This marks the first time in over a decade that the WHO has, at its highest...

MPLADS funds will only be used for the material component of the projects Federal lawmakers can now use their discretionary funds to finance work taken up under the government’s flagship jobs scheme, a move aimed at creating more lasting community assets in the villages. The government has decided to converge the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) with the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS). But MPLADS funds...

The widespread outrage following the telecast of video footage of Jarawa men and women dancing for tourists is both heartening and disappointing. Heartening because the media made a rather unusual attempt to address the existential challenges of a people known to us as 'primitives' and disappointing because it failed to generate a nuanced debate. The 30-second TV slots accorded to 'experts' and stakeholders served to polarise opinion on the incident...

The Bengal government had introduced a remote-area incentive system that rewarded doctors working in Calcutta for all practical purposes but not in some places that could be reached only by crossing rivers. Calcutta High Court today stayed the order, which was issued by the Mamata Banerjee government last year but did not draw much attention beyond medical circles. The government order denied several doctors who had served in villages the advantages due...

In the absence of legislation to protect women from sexual harassment at the workplace, the Supreme Court in 1997 laid down guidelines in the Vishaka vs State of Rajasthan in 1997. Thirteen years later, Parliament came up with the “Protection of Women against Sexual Harassment at Workplace Bill, 2010”. However, the Bill sees sexual harassment at the workplace not as a criminal offence but as a mere civil wrong, the...