-The Indian Express Tribals generally impose social boycott as punishment for those suspected of practising sorcery. The tradition is strong in Uttnoor, Narnoor, Jainoor and Indravelli mandals in Adilabad district . The Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) officials, though aware of it, could not do much as tribals go by the word of the village head rather than the advice of an ITDA officer. In Kolamguda village under Bersiahpet panchayat of...

-BBC At least 17 people have died after drinking tainted home-made alcohol over the weekend in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, officials say. More than 20 people are also being treated in hospital in the state's Krishna district. Deaths from illicit alcohol are not uncommon in India, as licensed liquor is often too expensive for the poor. In December, at least 169 people died after drinking toxic alcohol in West Bengal state. Protests The...

-Associated Press   Bootleg liquor containing toxic methanol killed 143 people and sickened dozens more who drank the cheap, illicit brew bought at small shops in West Bengal, officials said Thursday. Police arrested 10 suspected bootleggers. Emergency medical teams rushed to the village outside Kolkata, and thousands of relatives, many of them wailing in grief, gathered outside the packed hospital. Inside, dead bodies lay on the floor covered in quilts, while the ill...

-ANI The statistics for farmer suicides in India are as striking as they are shameful. One farmer suicide every 30 minutes in 2009, screamed a NYU School of Law report earlier this year. If one accepts that many suicides also go unreported, even this shocking statistics is perhaps an under-estimation. Why, then, would another three suicides, this time in Madhya Pradesh's Hoshangabad District, be newsworthy? For one, the suicides took place during the...

In the absence of a specific law defining the rights of patients, consumers in India face a host of problems when it comes to healthcare. They often do not get adequate information about their Illness or the treatment. In fact, there is very little recognition of the patients’ right to information or choice and this can also be seen in the way consent forms are obtained from patients for medical...