The Guinness Book of world record would have been happy to include this feat by a surgeon on January 7 in Bihar's Araria district - 53 sterilization operations on females in two hours with the help of unqualified staff in Kaparfora Government Middle School that did not have basic amenities like running water or sterilizing equipment. Instead, the Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to the Union and state governments on...

Nearly 70% of infant deaths (within the first year of birth) in the country in 2010 took place during the first 29 days of life (neonatal). While Jammu & Kashmir has the dubious distiction of leading the list with 82.1% infant deaths being neonatal, it is followed by Maharashtra (78%), Himachal Pradesh (77.5%), Punjab (74.2%), West Bengal (74%), Rajasthan (73.4%) and Madhya Pradesh (70.8%). The Registrar General's latest data Sample Registration System...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court today issued notices to all states and Union territories asking them to explain unsafe and unhygienic sterilisation drives in violation of an earlier order for safe procedures. The move came on a PIL by a health rights activist who alleged inhuman sterilisations continued in rural areas in “reckless disregard” of the lives of poor women, especially in Bihar. In one case, 53 women were sterilised in two hours...

While it has made progress on water supply, a high percentage continue to defecate in the open   Going by the present pace of progress, India will achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) on sanitation only by 2054. While some States had already achieved the target and some are close to it, other populous States such as Madhya Pradesh and Orissa will reach the target only in the next century, according to...

-The Times of India Union rural development minister Jairam Ramesh on Monday rewarded a woman who refused to live at her in-laws house because there was no toilet. The decision to reward the tribal woman, Anita Bai Narre, with Sulabh Sanitation Award, comprising a cheque of Rs 5 lakh, is aimed at encouraging sanitation and Hygiene, which would boost the low-cost toilet movement. Newly-wed Anita Bai of Betul district of Madhya Pradesh hit...