-The Hindu Child protection officers cite role of some gangs in the racket   Vijaywada: Poverty has forced a few women in Andhra Pradesh to sell their babies. In two cases reported in Eluru and Mangalagiri in the past three or four days, the women gave statements that their family members sold the babies unable to care for them. “Earlier, we have seen cases of issueless couples resorting to illegal adoptions and purchasing...

-PTI/ Newsclick.in The Meghalaya government has recently submitted the action taken report to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) after the latter registered a case over the high number of maternal and newborn deaths in the state during the pandemic. Shillong: As many as 877 newborn babies and 61 mothers have died as pregnant women refused to get admitted to hospitals for institutional delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic due to fears of...

-The Hindu To avert another Bhandara-like hospital inferno, govts must address underlying causes The deadly fire that snuffed out the lives of 10 infants in the Bhandara District General Hospital in Maharashtra is a shocking reminder that safety norms in several medical facilities in India do not pass muster. The parents of the babies who perished in the sick new-born unit have been plunged into a lifetime of trauma. Some of the...

Commenting on the recently released fifth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) data for 17 states and five Union Territories (UTs) in an article published in The Indian Express (dated 6th January, 2021), Arvind Subramanian and his co-authors have stated that India has made progress on certain outcomes, including infant mortality rate (IMR), under-five mortality rate (U5MR) and neonatal mortality rate (NNMR). Relying on various rounds of NFHS data,...

-The Hindu Women brave arduous journeys to reach hospitals. BHUBANESWAR: After walking down two hills, taking a boat across a huge reservoir and then finally travelling 30 km on bumpy country roads in a rickety autorickshaw, the actual process of giving birth was not difficult at all for 35-year-old Kusum Nayak. The labour pains pale into insignificance for the pregnant women of 16 largely tribal villages under the N. Podapadar panchayat in Odisha’s...