Alarmed at the declining figures of female population in Maharashtra, as revealed by the provisional census of 2011, the state health department has launched a crackdown on clinics, which illegally perform sex determination tests. According to department officials, they will deploy 'Decoy Sting Operation Teams' at the district level. This team, which consists of khabris (informants), will track down clinics performing sex determination tests. Local health NGOs will also be...

Stillbirths are largely invisible as a social and public health problem. Millions of families experience stillbirth, yet these deaths remain unenumerated, unsupported, and the solutions undercooked. Calling upon the international community and individual countries for action, British medical journal The Lancet has said better counting of stillbirths alongside maternal and neonatal deaths and strategic programmatic action would bring stillbirths under account. The Lancet's series on stillbirths suggests that millions of such cases...

Bihar did not record a single stillbirth in 2008 — death of an unborn child in mother's womb during the last trimester of pregnancy (after 28 weeks' gestation). Even before you could sigh in disbelief, truth to be told that India tremendously under reports stillbirth figures. According to the sample registration survey in 2008, conducted by the registrar general's office, the country recorded eight stillbirths per 1,000 births — a highly improbable...

More than a hundred officials from various government and non government agencies observed a minute’s silence to pay tribute to slain Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGREGS) activist Niyamat Ansari at a consultation session organised by Poorest Areas Civil Society (PACS) to discuss the challenges facing the scheme and its future today. Deputy chief minister Hemant Soren, who was the chief guest on the occasion, faced a barrage of...

Unlike the educated elite who go Westwards, attracted by better opportunities and a luxurious lifestyle, those who land up in West Asia as waged labourers have a much harder time: Practically no rights, hostile working environments and absolutely no support systems. Why is it that the violation of their basic rights doesn't figure at all in the national imagination? About the same time that India aired “absolute displeasure and concern” over...