Convention on Domestic Workers recognises rights of domestic Workers as worker rights “People will throw us out, rather than give us all these rights”: a part-time domestic maid Trade union activists and those working with the informal sector may be rejoicing over the historic Convention on Domestic Workers adopted by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) last week recognising the rights of domestic Workers as worker rights and specifies standards for regulation of...

The murder of Mid-Day's J. Dey is only the tip of the iceberg. If violence against journalists continues unchecked, can a beleaguered press continue to report the way it should? If they are becoming fair game for everybody, it makes you wonder if the media as a sector really has clout. The lawlessness that is currently manifest in public life is turning out to have another dimension to it. The power...

-The United Nations   Up to 3.6 million deaths could be avoided each year in 58 developing countries if midwifery services are upgraded, according to a report released today by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and partners. The study, The State of the World’s Midwifery 2011, estimates that an additional 112,000 midwives need to be deployed in 38 countries to meet their target to achieve 95 per cent coverage of births...

Focussing on population stabilisation and meeting the unmet demands of contraceptives, the mission steering group (MSG) of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) on Tuesday decided to utilise Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) for delivery of contraceptives at the homes of beneficiaries. For this, ASHAs can charge Re. 1 for a pack of 3 condoms, Re. 1 for an Oral Contraceptive Pill (OCP) cycle and Rs. 2 for an Emergency...

Land acquisition and involuntary displacement have been the fountainhead of enormous destitution of millions of invisible people since Independence. Generations of those sacrificed for ‘development’ are farmers and farm Workers, and many are fragile tribal people and forest gatherers. By coercive displacement and dispossession, governments pauperise its poorest people, and its food-growers, so that the ‘nation’ can prosper and grow. Rage at persisting State injustice of coercive displacement frequently spills onto...