Women and impoverished, illiterate tribals fall prey to Madhya Pradesh’s overweening family planning zeal Birth Control 1951 Family planning as a policy is launched in independent India 1978 Rechristened Family Welfare after the emergency 2000 National Population Policy aims at stable population by 2045 2010 Madhya Pradesh launches targeted family planning NPP says sterilisation should be last resort in family planning. *** When Shyam Lal* walked into a primary health centre at Rewa, a dusty little town in...

When ASHA Shinde left Aundh in Maharashtra’s dusty Satara district to pursue the dream of a career in Pune a couple of years ago, she demonstrated to her sleepy hometown a quiet defiance that it was unfamiliar with. On Tuesday, the shocked town was saying it is even less familiar with what happened two days ago. On Sunday morning, 25-year-old ASHA was bludgeoned to death by her father in their home...

Proposes inter-ministry contribution for prioritising the issues   Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh has presented a plan to various Central ministries to contribute to the cause of drinking water and sanitation, saying that investment for a healthy population was as important as investing for defence. Mr. Ramesh, who also holds the Drinking Water and Sanitation portfolio, on Tuesday had his proposals ratified at the National Drinking Water and Sanitation Council which...

-Express News Service   Union Minister for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Virbhadra Singh on Tuesday tore into the state BJP government on various issues like corruption, illegal land deals and dynastic rule, and did not spare the state Congress leadership either for not playing the role of an effective Opposition.   The five-time former chief minister raised the issue of land transfer recently allowed under Section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land...

The recommendations of the Planning Commission’s High Level Expert Group on Access to Universal Healthcare are significant because they make explicit the need to contextualise health within the rights. However, the problem with the report is that it does not ask why many of the same recommendations that were made by previous committees have not been implemented. The HLEG neither recognises the problems, constraints and compulsions at the national, state...