Slamming the Central government’s stand on the use of toxic pesticide endosulfan as leading to “a grave violation of human rights”, the National Human Rights Commission has called for a nation-wide ban. India should also agree to a global ban, said the Commission, which also recommended higher compensation for victims. In its report submitted on Friday, the NHRC panel accused the government of ignoring the National Institute of Occupational Health’s study...

With three small children to raise in a dirt-poor village in eastern India’s Bihar state, farm labourer Renu Devi is an unsung rural supermom who shuttles between home and field every day. But the demure 30-year-old mother does not forget to bring her children to the biannual Vitamin A rounds in Bagwanpur Rati, one of the villages in Vaishali district of Bihar. This is because Vitamin A deficiency is a major...

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) is stepping up its efforts to ensure that gender, Reproductive Health and other population dynamics figure high on the agendas of upcoming global environmental and sustainable development discussions. Agency officials met with representatives from 20 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on Wednesday to build partnerships to advocate for the inclusion of these issues, with a special focus on the agenda of the “Rio+20” conference in 2012, a...

The issues relating to the victims of endosulfan, sprayed in the plantations of Kasargod district in Kerala, have snowballed once again. “Earthworms emerged from the soil, and, subsequently, died. Then birds came to eat the earthworms and they died as well.”   “Some termites were killed in a cotton farm sprayed with endosulfan. A frog fed on the dead termites, and was immobilised a few minutes later. An owl which flew over...

More needs to be done to protect women from the dangers of unsafe abortions, a United Nations official told a forum in Ghana that is examining the extent of the problem in Africa, where some 5.5 million unsafe abortions are performed annually. Thokozile Ruzvidzo, Director of the African Centre for Gender and Social Development at the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), said many commitments have been made regarding women’s health,...