The Rajasthan government on Sunday suspended a drug inspector and an employee of the government Umaid Hospital in Jodhpur, where 13 women have died of excessive bleeding during childbirth in the past two weeks. It announced an ex gratia of Rs.5 lakh each to the next of kin of the deceased, besides blacklisting two pharmaceutical and surgical equipment firms. The decisions were taken at a high-level meeting convened at Chief Minister Ashok...

Health authorities in India's Rajasthan state are investigating allegations that 13 pregnant women died after they were given infected intravenous (IV) fluids at a government hospital. All the deaths were reported in Jodhpur city over the past 10 days. Laboratory tests had confirmed that IV fluids supplied by a local company were "tainted", officials said. A police case has been registered and an investigation has begun, they said. "The women died after severe haemorrhaging...

Contaminated intravenous fluid has killed at least 12 pregnant women at Jodhpur's government-run Umaid Hospital in the last 10 days, according to hospital and police sources. Four more women were in a serious condition and had to be put on ventilators on Thursday. The hospital administration lodged a criminal case against the IV fluid manufacturer, Parental Surgical India Pvt Ltd (Indore), and the local distributor, Anshul Pharma, on Thursday as the...

Unlike the educated elite who go Westwards, attracted by better opportunities and a luxurious lifestyle, those who land up in West Asia as waged labourers have a much harder time: Practically no rights, hostile working environments and absolutely no support systems. Why is it that the violation of their basic rights doesn't figure at all in the national imagination? About the same time that India aired “absolute displeasure and concern” over...

The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act has in its four years faced many challenges in implementation, says a monitoring report. FIVE years ago, Parliament enacted a significant piece of legislation relating to women. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act (PWDVA), 2005, designed as a civil law, came into effect a year later, in October 2006. The fundamental feature of the Act was that it empowered magistrates...