Later this week, the Registrar General of India (RGI) will unveil the first flush of its findings from the 15th census. This once-in-a-decade effort is the seventh in independent India and is expected to showcase an entirely new set of vital statistics, consistent with the ongoing social and economic transformation of the country and something that should enthuse demographers and policy planners alike. Expectations are that the array of socio-economic data...

India will have 20% more men than women in the next two decades, thanks to sex-selective abortion and craze for male child in some states, according to a new study. Conducted by Dr Therese Hesketh and co-authors from the UCL Centre for International Health and Development, London, and published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal on Tuesday, the study says easy access to sex-selective abortions, has led to significant imbalances in...

The government has a plan to reach welfare to the poor without wasting money. It wants to put hard cash in their hands instead of spending on welfare programmes. To begin with, it wants to end the public distribution system of food grain and give money directly to the people. Its logic: the new system of cash transfer will plug leakages and save an enormous amount of money. But is it...

Only 12% of India's 355 million menstruating women use sanitary napkins (SNs). Over 88% of women resort to shocking alternatives like unsanitised cloth, ashes and husk sand. Incidents of Reproductive Tract Infection (RTI) is 70% more common among these women. Inadequate menstrual protection makes adolescent girls (age group 12-18 years) miss 5 days of school in a month (50 days a year). Around 23% of these girls actually drop out of school after...

Sixteen-year-old Rubina Khatun (name changed) of Jinarditola village in Malda's Kaliachak-II had an affair with Raisuddin, a local boy. Although the affair did not meet with approval from her parents, especially as her Class X exam was near, she was obstinate. On October 16, Rubina's father, Saifuddin Sk, lodged a complaint with the local police station, alleging that Raisuddin had taken his daughter away. A police search did not yield any...