-The Hindu Business Line In Sirsa, Haryana’s westernmost district, the fight to end female foeticide includes tip-offs, thrilling chases and decoys “Chhori hai ! Kal marna tha , aaj mar gayi” (It’s a girl! She’ll have to die tomorrow, she died today). Deputy civil surgeon Viresh Bhushan’s face twists into a grimace as he recalls the incident at Sirsa’s Civil Hospital four years ago. A grandmother in her fifties had strangled to...

-The Times of India AHMEDABAD: Upholding the two-child norm for panchayat candidates, the Gujarat high court has disqualified a taluka panchayat member who was elected last year and whose fourth child was born eight years ago but had died just five days after his birth. Mahesh Parmar was elected to Thasra taluka panchayat in local body elections last year but after a few months, another contestant brought to the notice of the...

-The Hindu Striking a startlingly contrarian note on the social evil of prenatal sex determination and resultant female foeticide, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi, speaking at a media event in Jaipur, suggested the determination of the sex of the foetus from the moment pregnancy is detected. “It is really not feasible to go around trying to catch every ultrasound technician for revealing the foetal gender to parents in...

-The Hindu Business Line A valuable account of how holistic, small-farmer based agriculture can show the way MS Swaminathan is well known as the key architect of India’s Green Revolution in the mid-1960s and an all-time crusader against hunger and food insecurity. His latest book, entitled Combating Hunger and Achieving Food Security, broadly shows the road map for a hunger-free and food-secure India. The book has 30 chapters, each suggesting some sweet...

-Hindustan Times Women and child development (WCD) minister Maneka Gandhi wants the three-month maternity leave presently granted to working women under the Maternity Benefits Act, 1961, to be increased to eight months, so as to enable mothers to take better care of their newborns. The Union labour ministry is already considering a proposal to increase the existing maternity leave from three to six months but Gandhi wants it to be further increased...