-Hindustan Times The realities of India’s socio-economic SITuation are often cited as the reason for some of our more retrograde laws. The one on child labour is a case in point. The Union Cabinet has increased penalties for offenders but at the same time allowed children below 14 to work in select family businesses after school hours. The caveat is that such businesses cannot be hazardous but should be things like entertainment and...

-PTI New Delhi: The current immunisation rate in rural areas is around 58 per cent while it is over 67 per cent in urban regions of the country, the government Tuesday said and attributed lack of awareness among parents and non- availability of vaccines as the reasons behind the low rate. "The current immunisation rate in urban India is 67.4 per cent and that in rural India is 58.5 per cent. "The reasons...

Due to the annual decline in under-5 mortality rate by almost 7% during 2008-13, the Government is hopeful of India attaining the target 5 of Millennium Development Goal-4 i.e. reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the U5MR. This has been revealed in a press release on checking child mortality rate by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, dated 28 April, 2015.   However, experts think that this will be...

-The Hindu Amidst the din over the land acquiSITion bill in Parliament, the farmer’s voice was missing. Everybody has an opinion on farmers these days. Be it politicians, policymakers, editors or economists. In fact, ever since the Parliament reconvened for the Budget session on April 20, the deteriorating condition of farmers has clearly dominated discussions. But even as the issue of agrarian crisis, farmer suicides (especially after Gajendra Singh’s suicide in a...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The larger-than-life images of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on hoardings asking people to use the anti-corruption helpline 1031 across Delhi will soon vanish. Welcoming the Supreme Court directive to ban media advertisements containing photos of chief ministers, ministers and functionaries of ruling political parties, Delhi government is ready to comply with the order and will bring down all such hoardings. Soon after the SC order, a...