Moving forward on the contention that reproductive right is also a human right, the civil society organisations in this backward district are contributing in their own little way to improve the reproductive and child health care. The Rogi Kalyan Samiti, as mandated under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), of the District Hospital here has taken up several initiatives to provide better facilities to the patients particularly for pregnant women. ``In...

The Union home ministry has warned the state government on the Maoist threat, asking it not to go easy on the rebels who have been tightening their grip on strongholds in Jungle Mahal. A senior police officer said this was the ministry’s first warning to the new government on the Maoist menace since it took charge in May. “Over the past three months, we have had letters from the Union home ministry...

-The Telegraph   Six children, aged between four and 10 years, died at the Malda Medical College and Hospital in the past 24 hours amid allegations that they were not treated on time and were made to wait by the doctors on duty. The hospital authorities, however, claimed that the children had been brought in very critical conditions. The Malda district magistrate has ordered an inquiry into the deaths at the hospital, which...

A report from a sample survey of the functioning of the public distribution system in 12 villages in two districts in Orissa, a state usually associated with a poor PDS. While there are errors in exclusion and inclusion of households covered, there has been a vast improvement in operation of the PDS; below the poverty line households seem to be receiving their entitlements. The households also express a strong preference...

-Rediff.com   Despite a significant increase in women and child healthcare in India, more than nine lakh children in the country still die every year before becoming one-month-old, says a new global report. The study, conducted by experts at the World Health Organisation, Save the Children and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, is said to be the most comprehensive estimate to date, covering all 193 WHO member countries and...