To be banned or not?
The Surrogacy (Regulation) Bill, 2016 introduced in the parliament proposes a ban on commercial surrogacy. Shoma Chatterji finds out if this will help in checking exploitation of women.
THE NEWS IN PROPORTION
23 June 2017
Women : Women's Health
COMMERCIAL SURROGACY
To be banned or not?
To be banned or not?
MENSTRUAL HYGIENE
Why rural girls need more than just sanitary napkins
Handing out non-biodegradable sanitary pads to rural school girls who have reached menarche will not address their menstrual hygiene issue. Clean and functional toilets with water supply, awareness about menstruation, economical and biodegradable pads and more is needed, finds Puja Awasthi.
GENDER LAW
Pro-life or pro-women’s rights?
Bijayalaxmi Nanda tracks some of the most prominent debates surrounding two critical legislations, dealing with gender-biased sex selection and abortion respectively, and highlights the commonalities in recommendations made by the apparently contradictory camps.
HOSPITAL NIGHTMARES
What’s turning women in labour away from hospitals?
Institutionalised delivery is encouraged as a means of reducing maternal/infant mortality, but the misbehaviour meted to pregnant women in government hospitals deters them, and others who hear of their experiences, from seeking such care. Ruhi Kandhari reports.
MATERNAL HEALTH
Barefoot auditors ensure health for tribal mothers
In the tribal villages of Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, committed social workers are improving the health and lives of mothers and children by spreading awareness about the needs of women and girls. Dilnaz Boga brings you their stories.
FAMILY PLANNING POLICY
Sterilisation deaths: What’s new, after all?
The death of 14 women in Chhattisgarh following botched sterilisation procedures has rightfully led to furore across the country. But a detailed, historical analysis of family planning as it has evolved, by Shoma A Chatterji, exposes an inherent and sustained gender bias in policy as well as practice.
INDOOR AIR POLLUTION
When kitchen smoke can kill
It has been widely established that the health impact of indoor air pollution, caused often by solid fuels for household cooking, far outweighs the hazards of outdoor pollution. Arpana HS quotes data from the Census and findings from a recent paper to show why India needs to tackle this on priority.
MATERNAL HEALTH
When expecting mothers fight graft to secure prenatal care
In Jahangirpur Gram Panchayat of Bihar’s Kishanganj district, Rs 30 lakh meant as cash incentives for pregnant Muslim women had already been misdirected, when a community-driven project launched by Oxfam decided to tackle the corruption head on. Ajitha Menon reports.
SUSTAINABLE FARMING
Good food from dry land
Across 20 villages of Bankura and Birbhum districts in West Bengal, 800 families are learning to farm dry land anew in a sustainable manner, resulting in increased income, better health and nutritional outcomes, and food security. Ajitha Menon reports from Bankura.
HEALTH DEFINITIONS
To deliver on health, understand it first
Medical services are today driven by needs and definitions out of sync with the realities of the masses. In conversation with
Pamela Philipose,
health activist
Imrana Qadeer
argues why health should be seen through the prism of the various structural components of society - caste, class and gender.
RURAL HEALTH
Health to the beat of drums
Simple interventions and sustained joint efforts by civil society groups and the local panchayat have resulted in significant improvements in communication and increase in health awareness in some of Rajasthan's most backward districts.
Swapna Majumdar
reports.
VIOLENCE AND HEALTH
Traumatised by violence
Women in Kashmir do not physically encounter violence as much as men do, but their feelings of helplessness and subsequent guilt
resulting from the violence around them is taking a toll.
Freny Manecksha
reports.
MATERNAL DEATHS
Mis-counting mortality
A recent report by Human Rights Watch, No Tally of the Anguish provides a much-needed exposure of the real story behind
averages and official data about maternal mortality, writes
Kalpana Sharma.
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Amitabha Basu
- Retired Scientist
- National Physical
- Laboratory
- India Together reader
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