The police at Sekmai in Manipur have rescued 10 tribal children, including three girls, from a child trafficker on Wednesday. They were being taken to Chennai as a part of a racket. The children, hailing from the interior villages of Churachandpur district, can speak only their dialects. They were being taken in an inter-State bus by a trafficker identified as James Khup (27) of New Lamka, Churachandpur. Following numerous instances of child...

If climate change is indeed the biggest global health threat, public health professionals say that women and children in developing countries will be hit hardest. Research has shown that deep inequalities make them the most vulnerable to scarcity and disease when community sources start to shrink. “Malnutrition poses the biggest threat to children,” paediatrics professor Louis Reynolds said. “If temperature rises by 3 degrees centigrade, deaths from malnutrition will go up by...

The lesson from the rest of the world is that seat reservation for women to merely increase their representation in the legislature will not do; they need to be empowered in the real sense.  During the debate in Parliament and outside over the Women's Reservation Bill, many people have referred to quota “success stories” worldwide — proposing that India could gain from the experience of about 40 other countries that...

ON February 12, Meham town in Rohtak district, Haryana, saw a citizens’ convention that was unusual in more than one sense. First, it was being held from the ramparts of the Meham Chaubisi Chabootara, a platform reserved for members of the Meham panchayat (a conglomeration of 24 villages, better known as the Meham Chaubisi). Second, the meeting was not dominated by any one caste. Third, it was a congregation of...

Many of our politicians would still rather ignore the informal sector and the women who form its backbone. They do so at our peril. India is undergoing enormous change. In a very short time, many Indians have become much richer, and our country is now often described as a “world player” economically and politically. Despite this transformation, our rich history, culture and traditions rightly remain important. Indeed, our success rests...