Article List

Ms. Sudha Sundarraman
Not a drop to drink - beware the looming water crisis
28 Jun 2018
Water as we know, is the elixir of life- without it, the living organism will die. In a capitalist world characterized by overconsumption and marketing of all resources, the global water crisis has acquired alarming proportions. Continents, countries, cities are witnessing unprecedented “desertification”. Dire predictions that the next World War will be fought around water do not appear far fetched any more.
The Tuticorin atrocity - when “ development” and death go hand in hand
24 May 2018
The body count after the police firing in Tuticorin on May 22nd has reached 12- and, going by the news reports, may go up further. The activists who bravely challenged the Sec 144 prohibitory orders promulgated by the Collector the previous evening were raising an issue affecting the lives and livelihood of the Tuticorin citizens over two decades. Hardly would they have expected the police force to rain fire upon them, using deadly bullets instead of rubber ones, aiming at the heads and chest instead of the legs, with no warning given before the shooting started.
Madhu Garg
Organised Murder of Children at Gorakhpur
29 Oct 2017
DOZENS of children at the ward no. 100 of BRD Medical College hospital, Gorakhpur met their tragic death during the fatefull night of August 10-11 this year. This was not merely an accident. It was rather due to criminal negligence on the part of hospital administration, and systematic failure of the existing public health system prevalent in Uttar Pradesh.
Brinda Karat
From Rajasthan To "Mersal", A Bad Week For Democracy In India
24 Oct 2017
In the village of Karimati in Jharkhand, Koili Devi, the mother of 11-year-old Santosh Kumari, who had died of starvation, had to flee her home as she was attacked by local goondas reportedly because she had challenged the official version that her child had died of malaria not hunger, and dared to publicly say that in fact her child had died because the government had passed orders that no one without an Aadhar card would get rations. She spoke the truth, and for that she was attacked. The local auxiliary nurse confirmed that the child was not suffering from malaria.
Ms. Sudha Sundarraman
Arresting the threat to food security from the “aadhar” onslaught.
23 Oct 2017
Simdega district in Jharkhand, with a large tribal population, and chronically beset by high levels of malnutrition and ill health, has shot into the national news recently for all the wrong reasons. The tragic death of a 11 year old girl named Santoshi Kumari has stirred public conscience, at a time when the lives of poor people appear to have fallen off the Government radar almost completely. The video recordings which went viral after the incident capture the plight of a family so poor that they could not feed their 11 year old child.
Ms. Sudha Sundarraman
Gorakhpur deaths- addressing an unfolding tragedy.
19 Sep 2017
Zahid Ali of village Bichhiya thus narrated the incident of his five year old daughter, Khushi. She ran high fever and was taken to a nearby doctor. Next day, the girl started vomiting and trembling. Then she was brought to the medical college hospital on the night of August 10. Zahid stated that the atmosphere at the ward was of utter confusion. Everybody was running here and there. The attending nurse gave him an AMBU bag – a device which supplies oxygen to patients temporarily.
Ms. Sudha Sundarraman
Interventions in health and population policies- the AIDWA experience.
16 Sep 2013
The All India Democratic Women’s Association, (AIDWA) which has been one of the frontline organisations in the countrywide campaign for women’s rights and women’s equality, firmly believes that the issues of women need to be addressed through multiple interventions and struggles, so as to alter oppressive power structures, in the family, in society, and in the policy framework.
Brinda Karat
Everyone forgets the surrogate
17 Jul 2012
Sushma Pandey,just 17 years old,reportedly died due to procedures related to egg harvesting conducted on her by a fertility clinic in Mumbai. Two years after her death,the Bombay high court did well to criticise the police for not prosecuting the hospital for its flagrant violation of the age requirement for women donors set out by the rules of the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Manjeet Rathee

17 May 2005

FEMALE infanticide has long existed in our society, especially in northern and western states like Punjab, Rajashtan, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. But the point of concern is that in this modern age of 'development,' new technologies like ultrasound diagnostic methods are being used to identify the gender of the foetus in the women, leading to large-scale female foeticide.

Eradicate Scourge Of Female Foeticide
30 Sep 2001
THE Census 2001 highlighted the drastic decline in the male-female child sex ratio (number of females per 1,000 males in the population) in several states in north and west India, and the continued decline in major southern states. This is particularly so in 0-6 age group, in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. In Punjab in this age group the figure is 793 girls per 1,000 boys; in Haryana it is 820; whereas in Rohtak it is 796. This should not be looked upon as something natural, nor has it happened suddenly.