-The Indian Express The tragedy of several women dying after undergoing sterilisation operations in the Bilaspur district of Chhattisgarh has once again thrown up uncomfortable questions around India's population programme. Although the cases are being investigated and the exact cause of the deaths has not been ascertained, the incident brings to light the abysmal conditions in which women are compelled to accept government-provided Contraception. India is a signatory to an agreement at...

-NDTV The Chhattisgarh government is guilty, at the least, of culpable homicide for the deaths of over a dozen women in government-run sterilisation camps in the last few days. But the government and in particular the Health Minister think they can escape from their own responsibility by arresting the doctor who did the operations and setting up a judicial enquiry. Really? You need a judicial enquiry to tell you that the targets you...

-Tehelka Despite the serious toll it takes on women's health, female sterilisation remains the most prevalent form of Contraception in India. While memories of the 21 months of Emergency in 1975-77, imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, survives even today in the minds of Indian men as the fear of forced sterilisation, the country's population control policies have shifted over the years since then to target the politically less...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Around two in five men in India - nearly 40.7% - were found to hold 'rigid and discriminatory' gender views. This segment believes women to be inferior. Such men are very controlling. They tend to dictate whom the wives can meet and do not allow participation in decision-making. Further, men who hold the most rigid views of masculinity are three times more likely to physically abuse their...

-The United Nations A United Nations report released today spotlights the high rates of teenage pregnancies in developing countries - 7.3 million every year - and calls on Governments to help girls achieve their full potential through education and adequate health services. The State of World Population 2013, produced by the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), notes that out of the 7.3 million births, 2 million are to girls who are 14 or...