National Sample Survey Organisation's report on the average calorie intake per person in Indian households points to a much higher incidence of poverty in the country than reflected in estimates of the proportion of the population below the official "poverty" line. Among the features that sully India’s “growth story” is the persistence and possible worsening of malnutrition in the country. The subsistence nutritional intake adopted when defining the official poverty line...

-ANI Sunita Kumari, a twelve year old Dalit girl from Balthar Mod, Jharkhand, a student of class seven, was forced into marriage not once but twice. Her first tie-up was at the age of seven with a mentally challenged person residing in the nearby Siktia village. Soon after the marriage Sunita escaped from the trap and the first thing she did after coming back was to request her mother to let her...

Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh fare better India is now ranked among the 50 nations with highest under-five child mortality rate. It has been placed at number 46 in the list of 193 countries. India’s neighbours Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh protect their newborns much better and rank 52, 59 and 61 respectively, according to Unicef’s latest ranking. The report—State of the world’s children 2012: children in an urban world— was released on...

-Economic and Political Weekly   Mamata Banerjee cynically casts aspersions on a rape victim to further her political agenda. When rape becomes a political power game, every woman, not just a rape survivor, has reason to be afraid. What this suggests is that, for people in the political battlefield, the seriousness of this violent crime and the increasing incidence of rape in our towns and villages are of no concern. This has become...

-Mid Day   India shines in its malls but slips badly when it comes to ensuring the well- being of its millions India may well be the world's fastest growing "free market"economy, but it is no competition to its neighbours when it comes to the social wellbeing of her people. A comparison with the neighbouring nations shows that besides Pakistan, all others like Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and China are far better off in...