-ThePrint.in ISEC Bangalore researchers studied NFHS data to find that out-of-pocket expenditure for a normal delivery at a public facility is higher for rural households (Rs 5,368) than urban (Rs 4,330). Maternal and child healthcare services in India – including antenatal care, natal care (institutional delivery, or births delivered in a medical facility), postnatal care, and childcare – are meant to be free of cost in public health facilities. Several policies and...

-Down to Earth The attempt on the part of the incumbent government, to project the Bengali Muslim community as a civilisational threat to Assam’s indigenous communities is not going to help Debates on population control gained momentum in the state of Assam after the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government assumed power in the state in May 2021. From the beginning of his tenure, the chief minister has been asserting that his government stands for...

-TheCitizen.in There is no evidence of a population explosion in either India or Uttar Pradesh Women’s groups, health experts and civil society groups have written to the President of India raising concerns and opposing the Draft Uttar Pradesh Population Control Bill 2021. The bill’s main objective is to implement a two-child norm by punishing adults with more than two children, and rewarding those who comply. Following in the steps of BJP-governed Assam, the disincentives...

-The Hindu Lower stunting among children with mothers who had access to free school lunches, shows data from 1993-2016. Girls who had access to the free lunches provided at government schools, had children with a higher height-to-age ratio than those who did not, says a new study on the inter-generational benefits of India’s midday meal scheme published in Nature Communications this week. Using nationally representative data on cohorts of mothers and their children...

-The Hindu The Uttar Pradesh government should understand that evidence backs the principle of informed free choice Many of us working in the field of public health and social development have been taken aback, if not downright shocked, by the recently announced draft Uttar Pradesh Population (Control, Stabilization and Welfare) Bill, 2021 that focuses exclusively on making a two-child norm a law, specifying various incentives and penalties for contravention. The burgeoning negative...