South Asia may boast a number of women leaders and be home to cultures that revere motherhood and worship female deities, but many women live with the threat of appalling violence and without many basic rights. From forced marriages in Afghanistan and "honor killings" in Pakistan to foeticide in India and trafficking in Nepal, South Asian women face a barrage of dangers, experts say, but add growing awareness, better laws and...

Survey shows Congo, Pakistan and Somalia also fail females, with rape, poverty and infanticide rife Targeted violence against female public officials, dismal healthcare and desperate poverty make Afghanistan the world's most dangerous country in which to be born a woman, according to a global survey released on Wednesday. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Pakistan, India and Somalia feature in descending order after Afghanistan in the list of the five worst...

Numberless schools will reopen in various parts of the country in a few days to find change in their midst. Impelled by law, their campuses would probably for the first time open doors to underprivileged children who otherwise would have never got an education. Schools in Maharashtra, however, will not rank among these institutions this year since it is one of those states yet to notify Right to Education (RTE)...

Rural households having a member earning more than Rs 10,000 a month or anyone serving in a government or government-Aided organisation or owning a landline phone will not be included in the below poverty line (BPL) category in the new poverty census being conducted by states. However, the new census, which also includes questions about religion and castes, will compulsory include rural households without shelter, destitutes living on alms, manual scavengers,...

The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AidS (UNAidS) has welcomed the new targets set by world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly High Level Meeting on AidS held in New York. Countries agreed to advance efforts towards reducing sexual transmission of HIV and halving by 2015 HIV infection among people who inject drugs. They also agreed to push towards eliminating new HIV infections among children in the next five years....