-Newslaundry.com The figures, disclosed under the RTI Act, show that Network18 was the biggest beneficiary of the UP government’s deep pockets in 2020-21. The Uttar Pradesh Government spent a staggering Rs 160.31 crore on advertisements on TV news channels between April 2020 and March 2021, reveals a right to information reply by the state government. The RTI divided the state’s ad expenditure into “national TV news channels” and “regional TV news channels”. The...

-Newsclick.in It also requests the President to declare the proposed Bill unconstitutional as it violates the right to equality guaranteed to all citizens of the country under Article 14 of the Constitution of India. A group of women, women’s organisation, academics, health and legal rights activities, health networks have submitted a memorandum to the President of India opposing the proposed Draft Uttar Pradesh (UP) Population Control, Stabilisation and Welfare Bill, 2021. The...

-Scroll.in Unless the Centre and states act swiftly, the humanitarian crisis is likely to worsen. As India witnesses a record-breaking surge of Covid-19 cases, the Central and state governments have been scrambling to find appropriate responses to handle this health crisis. At a time when the healthcare system is severely strained, many state governments not surprisingly have employed public health or non-pharmaceutical interventions to control the spread of the disease. These interventions...

-The Hindu The Uttar Pradesh Government should understand that evidence backs the principle of informed free choice Many of us working in the field of public health and social development have been taken aback, if not downright shocked, by the recently announced draft Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021 that focuses exclusively on making a two-child norm a law, specifying various incentives and penalties for contravention. The burgeoning negative...

-The Hindu A simple reading of U.P.’s draft population control law is that it will grossly impinge on the right to reproductive freedom On Sunday, the government of Uttar Pradesh released a “Population Policy” in which it stated its intention to bring the gross fertility rate in the State down from the existing 2.7 to 2.1 by 2026. To achieve this, the government says it will consider the enactment of a new...