The provisional data of Census 2011 for the state shows the districts of Churu and Barmer with negative growth in literacy. While Churu's literacy rate has fallen from 67.59% to 67.46%, Barmer reported a much higher drop from 58.99% to 57.49%. Director, Census Operations, Rajasthan Shubra Singh pointed out that in the Census 2001, none of the districts had reported negative growth. The state also holds the dubious distinction of having...

Rajasthan has failed its girl children on two counts. Not only has it failed to protect them, it has also been unsuccessful in educating them, according to the Census figures released on Monday. The child sex ratio (number of females for every 1,000 male children in 0-6 age group) has dropped sharply to 883 from 909 in 2001 and the state reports the lowest female literacy rate at 52.66%. Expressing concern...

The battle against poverty and inequity can be won only if governments focus on the welfare of adolescents, says a UNICEF report. FINALLY, it has been recognised that adolescents constitute a very critical category in the overall battle against poverty and inequity. It is for this reason that the United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) flagship report, “The State of the World's Children 2011”, focusses exclusively on adolescents and cautions against neglecting...

Records second lowest literacy rate in the country The sex ratio in Arunachal Pradesh has improved to 920 females per 1000 males, up from 893 a decade ago, as per the provisional census report of 2011. The lowest sex ratio is in Tawang where the number of females was only 701 against 1,000 males though for the 0—6 years age group the number is 1,005. The provisional report, released here on Tuesday, put...

“National organisations of health research should come together to provide effective stewardship” Proportion of published papers increased from 0·4 % in 1988 to 1·8 % in 2008 Only 1/4 public health research reports rated as being of adequate quality Expressing concern over the scarcity of research on the routine health-information system in both reports and published papers, which is crucial to track the response of the health system to the health needs of...