The annual report of the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) says that the average overcrowding rate in Indian prisons is 14 per cent. What the report does not reveal is that 149 jails in the country are overcrowded by more than 100 per cent and that eight are overcrowded by margins of a staggering 500 per cent.
In the decade after liberalisation, there was a nearly 120 per cent rise in the number of domestic workers in India, says author Tripti Lahiri in her recently released book, "Maid In India". Women constitute over two-thirds of the workforce in this unorganised sector. They usually come from backward regions such as Jharkhand, West Bengal and Assam, are often barely of legal working age, their wages less than the minimum fixed by the government. Their employers range from Indias elite to its nouveau riche, many of who still believe in the traditional divide between servants and masters.
Nine of India's poorest states -- home to 581 million or 48 per cent of the population -- account for 70 per cent of the country's infant deaths, 75 per cent of under-five deaths and 62 per cent of maternal deaths, but do not spend even the money they have set aside for healthcare, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of 2017 Reserve Bank of India data on state budgets.
After a decade-long legal battle, the Supreme Court ruled in April 2017 that permanent jobs be given to 2,700 contract workers of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), India's richest municipal corporation. These contract workers, who sweep streets, collect garbage and clean sewers, were not entitled to health and other benefits, vacation, rest days and pension. They will now get back pay of two years and employee benefits, such as weekly offs and medical leave without a pay cut.
As demands for farm-loan waivers grow across Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka -- after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra wrote off loans worth Rs 36,359 crore and Rs 30,000 crore, respectively -- India faces a cumulative loan waiver of Rs 3.1 lakh crore, or 2.6 per cent of its GDP in 2016-17.
Underage marriages, especially of girls, are rising in urban India and declining in rural India, according to a new analysis of census data, but while the immediate reasons are not clear, patriarchy and the continuing hold of tradition are implicated.
दहेज प्रथा : महिलाओं के शोषण का एक प्रतीक दहेज प्रथा भारत की उन समाजिक कुरीतियों में से एक है जो आज भी बदस्तूर जारी है । दहेज प्रथा की शुरूआत भारत में ब्रिटिश शासनकाल के पहले हुई थी । ये प्रथा उस समय दरअसल एक कुरीति के रूप में नहीं थी । उस समय पिता विवाह के समय पुत्री को उपहार स्वरूप कुछ धन या भूमि दान में देता था । इस भूमि या धन पर सिर्फ उसकी पुत्री का हक होता था । इस संपदा के जरिए वो महिला स्वावलंबी भी होती थी और परिवार का भरण-पोषण भी करती थी ।
Will the US withdrawal from the Paris agreement impact Indias efforts to tackle climate change? To a limited extent, yes. Will it stop Indias actions against climate change? No.
New Delhi, May 24, As the government gears up to push generic medicines to bring down costs for patients, World Health Organisation (WHO) representative in India Henk Bekedam has stated that the move, if successfully implemented, will not only reduce the cost of medicines within the country but also globally.
Chandigarh, May 9, It was ranked at the top spot among India's institutions of higher learning just four years ago. It's alumni includes a former President and two former Prime Ministers, among them Manmohan Singh. But today, the 135-year-old Panjab University (PU) is staring down the barrel of a staggering deficit upwards of Rs 345 crore ($53 million) -- with no immediate solution in sight.
