Women & Child Welfare

Abortion remains highly restricted in India. The governing law, the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (1971), permits abortions before 12 weeks of pregnancy by a registered medical practitioner or before 20 weeks of pregnancy with the approval of two registered medical practitioners, but only if the mother or child's mental or physical health is in danger. A slightly more liberal amendment is under consideration, but still does not allow abortion if the woman simply wishes to terminate the pregnancy.

As part of a Global Trends study, Ipsos examined global attitudes toward the role of women, parenting, and family across 22 countries by interviewing 18,180 adults. Majority of Indians surveyed (64%) think role of women in society is to be good mothers and wives revolving around home, according to the 2017 survey. When it comes to...

With the decreasing sex ratio in India, it has been reported by the Indian Government that the sex ratio will drop further in the coming years. The report, by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation was published earlier in the year. According to the report, the number of women every thousand men will drop...

Recently, Assam’s health minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, unveiled the draft of a new population policy for the state. It proposes, among other things, to penalise people who have more than two children. However, the Government has sought public suggestions on the draft population policy, which would be put up in the public domain, before...

Individual Social Responsibility is about continuing to make efforts inorder to make a difference in the lives of people. Earlier this month, a dowry-less social wedding ceremony was organised at Palakkad in Kerala. The biannual ceremony, witnessed 21 couples tying the knot during first edition of this year’s social wedding. “We have always believed in...

Tribal population in India is a community that is underdeveloped both economically and socially. They mostly live in isolation from mainstream population. Women especially often find it difficult to be employed in the mainstream jobs. However, they are very good at traditional skills, which are tapped on by We Will Help (WWH) Charitable Foundation,...

Investopedia defines demonetisation as, “the act of stripping a currency unit of its status as legal tender. Demonetisation is necessary whenever there is a change of national currency. The old unit of currency must be retired and replaced with a new currency unit.” The demonetisation of banknotes policy was enacted by the Government of India ceasing the usage...

An estimate of 1.2 million children are pushed into the abyss of forced prostitution in India, which means that India has the largest amount of child prostitutes in the world. Out of those 1.2 million cases, only 55 legal cases led to convictions in 2015. To counter this impunity, ‘School of Justice’ was launched on...

The Union Cabinet on Friday took long pending steps to strengthen laws against child labour. It approved ratification of the Minimum Age Convention, 1973 (No. 138) and Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, 1999 (No. 182) of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave its approval...

It is estimated that there are 20 million commercial sex workers in India, and around 80% of these, i.e. 16 million women, are victims of sex trafficking. This alarming figure begs for people to take notice of growing criminal industry of the trade of human beings, not only in India but throughout the world. Ruchira Gupta, Indian anti-sex-trafficking activist is...

Earlier in this month, the world celebrated the strength of women and promising to bridge the gap by aiding to create an equal place for them. At the 2017 Asia-Pacific commemoration of International Women’s Day a distinguished panel of experts underscored the need to close the gender pay gap, ensure comprehensive social protection for women...

“If a minor is raped, the rapist has to marry the victim. This is an important issue we are fighting against. We are aiming to create stability and a sustainable environment for all. We want to do our best as the Nobel Peace Prize is a heavy responsibility,” said Najet Zammouri, Vice President &...