-The Indian Express We hope that our judiciary will exercise its immense constitutional power to lead and supervise a free, fair and speedy investigation into the heinous allegation of brutal rape and the completely illegal forced cremation and illegal detention by the UP police. People who died of the plague or some other contagious disease were carried out of the village and their bodies were burnt without the dignity of a proper...

-The Telegraph Rights group demands that the cases be tried in fast-track courts New Delhi: A leading Dalit rights group on Wednesday described the fatal gang rape and torture of a teenaged Dalit girl in Hathras as the tip of an iceberg of atrocities against deprived segments of the population in Uttar Pradesh. The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) blamed the indifference of the police for the increasing assaults on Dalit...

-The Hindustan Times The Congress-led government in Kerala has decided to set up an exclusive fast-track court to deal with sexual atrocities against women and children. Announcing this here on Wednesday, chief minister Oommen Chandy said the court would be set up in Kochi immediately. “We have decided to sanction 18 new posts to set up a new additional and district court in Kochi. This court would deal only with cases...

KEY TRENDS   • Maternal Mortality Ratio for India was 370 in 2000, 286 in 2005, 210 in 2010, 158 in 2015 and 145 in 2017. Therefore, the MMRatio for the country decreased by almost 61 percent between 2000 and 2017 *14    • As per the NSS 71st round, among rural females aged 5-29 years, the main reasons for dropping out/ discontinuance were: engagement in domestic activities, not interested in education, financial constraints and marriage. Among rural males aged...