-Tehelka Despite the serious toll it takes on women's health, female sterilisation remains the most prevalent form of contraception in India. While memories of the 21 months of Emergency in 1975-77, imposed by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi, survives even today in the minds of Indian men as the fear of forced sterilisation, the country's population control policies have shifted over the years since then to target the politically less...

-The Hindu Kochi (Kerala): Exposing the poor sanitary conditions in schools, only 134 CBSE schools from the State figure in the list of 2,721 educational institutions that are listed under the national school sanitation rating. Schools are rated as per its sanitation status in five colour categories pertaining to infrastructure, institutional sustainability, environmental sustainability, health and hygiene and pedagogic aspects. The rating is part of the board's ‘National School Sanitation Initiative' (NSSI)...

-The Indian Express   Mewat (Haryana): Mewat district Villages: 443 Population: 10.9 lakh Literacy: 56.1% (women 37.6%) Sanitation status: Lack of toilets in schools identified as main reason for high dropout among girls, over a thousand toilets built in 2008-12. Rajakiya Kanya Madhyamik Pathshala in Mewat district's Shah Chaukha village has 786 girls on the rolls between nursery and Class VIII. In 2008, a toilet was constructed, but within months, it shut down for lack of...

-The Hindu In addition to adequate provision of funds for cleaning, sanitation training and maintenance of toilets in schools, the issue of fixing accountability must also be addressed The revival of the issue of toilets in schools has brought to the fore a discussion that has for long existed among educationists, with varying positions occupying centre stage at different times. A couple of decades ago, when the deplorable state of education began...

-Deccan Chronicle Khammam: Gender discrimination is the same everywhere in our country and tribals are no exception. This was proved beyond doubt after a recent incident in a school in Bhadrachalam. Vanaja, a girl student in the school collapsed in the classroom and she was rushed to the hospital. The doctors examined her and found that she was suffering from anaemia. The government opened 3,250 angangwadi centres in Khammam district to offer nutritious...