Infant deaths to fall below 30 per 1,000 live births by 2012: Survey

With the gradual fall of crude birth and death rates, the country expects to lower its infant mortality rate to below 30 per 1,000 live births by 2012, although block and village level annual plans have not been prepared for 24 States and UT, the Economic Survey said.

 Rajasthan moves to register child

The Rajasthan government’s decision to register all marriages, including child marriages, has stirred a huge controversy. The NGOs are protesting against this saying it would promote child marriages. But the government claims this won’t give legal sanction to the social evil....

 Children contract HIV due to negligence

Five Thelisemic children have been infected with HIV due to tainted blood transfusions in a hospital in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The Umaid hospital's medical negligence has left the parents shattered and their children's lives irreparably damaged...

 No financial crisis impact? India's poor grew by 34 mn

It's a myth that the global financial crisis left India virtually unscathed. In fact, India is the biggest victim of financial crisis-induced poverty, according to data obtained by TOI from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs' (UNDESA). Check out these figures...

 Costly healthcare pushes 39m into

In India, private spending on health is 4.2% of GDP. More than 70% of all health expenditure in India is paid for by people from their own pockets and this expenditure has been rising, especially for the poorest with increasing privatization of healthcare.

 Children wait for food under the midday meal

Since about 1980, the Indian economy has grown, in terms of its gross domestic product (GDP), at over 6 per cent per annum compound, as against an average for the period 1950 to 1980 of around 3 to 3.5 per cent. More recently, between 2003-04 and 2007-08, the rate of growth of India’s GDP even breached the 8 per cent barrier, giving rise to breathless celebrations in sections of the media about India being rapidly on its way to being a “superpower” or at the very least an economic powerhouse.

 New scheme to cut infant, maternal mortality rate

Aimed at reducing the infant and maternal mortality rate, a new programme, Navjat Shishu Suraksha Karyakaram, has been launched to train health care providers at health centres across the country.