KEY TRENDS   • Maternal Mortality Ratio for India was 370 in 2000, 286 in 2005, 210 in 2010, 158 in 2015 and 145 in 2017. Therefore, the MMRatio for the country decreased by almost 61 percent between 2000 and 2017 *14    • As per the NSS 71st round, among rural females aged 5-29 years, the main reasons for dropping out/ discontinuance were: engagement in domestic activities, not interested in education, financial constraints and marriage. Among rural males aged...

A court here Monday awarded Life imprisonment to seven people for the 2002 lynching of five Dalits in this Haryana district. All the convicts were produced in the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge A.K. Jain, amidst heavy security. After the sentencing, the accused were sent to Rohtak jail. The court acquitted 19 people in the case Saturday. Those convicted are: Om Prakash Kablana (head of Gaushala village), Shishu Pal Malik, Ranbir...

The Supreme Court has awarded life sentence to three persons in an honour killing case, in which six members of a family were gunned down but said the accused deserved a capital punishment. The apex court, however, refrained from awarding death penalty to Master Krishna, Ram Sewak and Kishori as the incident was two decades old and slammed the High Court for acquitting them by rejecting the testimonies of a child...

Parents who practice the dictum, 'spare the rod and spoil the child', had better watch out. The government is planning a legislation that will make meting out corporal punishment to a child an offence not just for educational institutions and care givers, but also for parents, relatives, neighbours and friends. In other words, just like in the US, children in India will be able to take parents or relatives to...

With khap-dictated honour killings threatening to become a trend, the Centre is mulling an ordinance to rein in the caste courts meting out extreme punishments to young couples who don't follow the diktat against marrying within the same gotra. The Centre has already discussed amendments to relevant laws -- Indian Penal Code, Indian Evidence Act and Hindu Marriage Act -- to deter village elders from holding kangaroo courts which call...