-Hindustan Times India has the largest population of modern slaves in the world with more than 18 million people trapped as bonded labourers, forced beggars, sex workers and child soldiers, a global survey report said on Monday. The Global Slavery Index by human rights organisation Walk Free Foundation said the number was 1.4% of India’s population, the fourth highest among 167 countries with the largest proportion of slaves. “Existing research suggests all forms...

-The Times of India CHANDIGARH: Over 60% of schoolgirls in Punjab who are detected with heart diseases are not given any treatment and are presumably left to die. This startling finding has been brought out in a study, published this month in a British medical journal 'Heart Asia'. The study has found that despite schoolchildren getting free treatment for heart diseases under the National Health Mission (at the time of the study...

-The Times of India The city's child sex ratio reached an all time high in 2015, with 933 girls born per 1,000 boys, significantly ahead of the national average of 918. But several wards of the city bucked the progressive trend to register a worrying gap. As per recently released BMC data, 11of 24 wards registered a dip in the ratio, indicative of a strong bias towards the male child, compared with...

-The Hindu Business Line In Sirsa, Haryana’s westernmost district, the fight to end female foeticide includes tip-offs, thrilling chases and decoys “Chhori hai ! Kal marna tha , aaj mar gayi” (It’s a girl! She’ll have to die tomorrow, she died today). Deputy civil surgeon Viresh Bhushan’s face twists into a grimace as he recalls the incident at Sirsa’s Civil Hospital four years ago. A grandmother in her fifties had strangled to...

Although the focus of erstwhile UPA and the present NDA government has been to achieve higher economic growth by reaping the 'demographic dividend', a recent report from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) informs us that a substantial chunk of the population underwent ageing during the last 60 years. The report entitled Elderly in India: Profile and Programmes 2016 from CSO (that comes under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation) shows...