-The Hindu     The practices concerned are most widespread in South Asia and in South Asian diasporas. The European Parliament's recent resolution circumvents India's contention that caste oppression does not constitute racial discrimination. On October 10, the 766 members of the European Parliament, who represent just over half-a-billion people in 28-member-states, passed a historic resolution recognising caste-based discrimination and discrimination based on work and descent as a violation of human rights and an...

-The Hindu Bangalore: It is a move that will bring a positive change to preventive healthcare, including maternal and disease-control programmes. The State government is all set to provide mobile phones to all the 35,000 Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) in the State. These activists are community health workers in the World Bank-sponsored National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), which is being implemented by the Union government across the country. According to...

-The Hindu To bring up proportion of fully immunised children to 100 % THIRUVANANTHAPURAM (Kerala): The Health Department will kick off an intensive immunisation campaign across districts this week to bring up the proportion of fully immunised children to one hundred per cent in the State. The campaign is being launched on Monday in Malappuram, which has been consistently lagging behind in all immunisation and related activities and has the highest proportion of...

-The Hindu To get youth interested in agriculture research, the Agriculture Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB) must undertake a special drive, noted farm scientist M.S. Swaminathan said on Friday. He said there should be a special analysis of the gaps in regional-level research, particularly in northeastern and tribal areas "as was done in the past." Special recruitment drives should be undertaken by inducting young scientist graduates from such regions and "grooming them intensively." He suggested...

-The United Nations A United Nations report released today spotlights the high rates of teenage pregnancies in developing countries - 7.3 million every year - and calls on Governments to help girls achieve their full potential through education and adequate health services. The State of World Population 2013, produced by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), notes that out of the 7.3 million births, 2 million are to girls who are 14 or...