-The Telegraph New Delhi: Free health-care services during childbirth remain a pipe dream for most of India's poor, whether it relates to diagnostic tests, medicines, transport or even food, despite the Union health ministry launching a "free entitlements" programme five years ago. The families of most women who seek childbirth in government hospitals are forced to pay for supposedly "free" services, at times experiencing catastrophic expenditures likely to accentuate their poverty, two...

-Hindustan Times Soon, colleges across Bengal will have separate toilets for transgender students. Kolkata: As a step towards addressing the concerns of the transgender community and helping them earn social acceptance, the coordination committee for West Bengal Transgender Development Board, formed by the Mamata government, had recommended setting up separate toilets or modifying existing ones for these students at all the state-run and the state-aided colleges. Following the recommendation, the state higher...

-TheWire.in Married women are required to submit a marriage certificate or affidavit at the time of passport creation or renewal, though these documents are not demanded of married men. New Delhi: Despite senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj being at the helm in the Ministry of External Affairs, women passport applicants continue to face discrimination and harassment at regional passport offices and seva kendras across the country. women applying for passports are finding that...

-TheWire.in A ‘data revolution’ is needed in terms of making disaggregated data available if India is to achieve – or get anywhere near – the ambitious sustainable development goals related to health and nutrition. Earlier this year, around two hundred countries came together and agreed in principle on a global indicator framework for the 2030 Agenda and the sustainable development goals (SDG). The 17 goals and 169 targets of the SDG framework...

-NDTV Jaipur: 75-year-old Hanja Bai's pension stopped unexpectedly. A resident of a village in Rajasthan's Rajsamand district has trouble walking, has a hearing impairment and the Rs. 750 a month is her only means to survive. So she decided to pay the regional pension office a visit.   Without a pension for six months, Hanja took the expensive trip to the office, but only to be shocked.   "I went to the office in the...