Social Issues

The Supreme Court on Friday directed its committee led by a former apex court judge, Justice A.M. Sapre, to meet with the Road Transport Secretary within two weeks and work out a framework to mould State-specific guidelines for the electronic monitoring and enforcement of road safety. The court acknowledged that …

In what could be a boon to Scheduled Caste students pursuing medical courses and availing themselves of the Central government’s Post Matric Scholarship (PMS) scheme, the Tamil Nadu government is considering a proposal to enhance the PMS to match the fees paid for those admitted under the 7.5% quota. The …

It is an oft-repeated judicial view that courts must defer to the elected government’s judgment in matters of economic and social policy. Their interventions are usually limited to instances where executive decisions are palpably arbitrary or patently illegal. In this backdrop, it is no surprise that four of the five …

A recent statement by a Member of Parliament that same-sex marriages are against the (so-called) cultural ethos of India has once again stirred up the debate on marriage equality. This is amidst a petition for marriage rights of same-sex couples (under the Special Marriage Act, 1954) pending before the Supreme …

Wary of a rise in number of COVID-19 cases, the government has made negative RT-PCR reports a mandatory requirement for air travellers arriving from China, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand. In its latest guidelines for international travellers, the Health and Family Welfare Ministry has said a pre-departure test conducted …

Despite a year-long mission-mode recruitment drive to hire faculty for reserved category positions at the elite Indian Institutes of Technology and Central universities, just over 30% of identified vacancies were filled, the Education Ministry told Parliament this week. In the year to September 5, 2022, 23 IITs and 45 Central …

The subject of the spiralling costs of cancer medicines and their implications that have frequently been highlighted the world over were dwelled on in a recent report (“Cancer Care Plan and Management”) by the Rajya Sabha’s Standing Committee on Health (bit.ly/3jfmxLG). Alluding to the implications of the high cost of …

The Union government has not conducted any survey nor is it considering a proposal to conduct one to identify the number of beneficiaries entitled to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) reservation, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment said in response to a question from Sajda Ahmed of the Trinamool …

Breast cancer, by the government’s estimate, is the leading cause of cancer in women in India. However, it does not qualify as a matter of “national” or “extreme” urgency in the Health Ministry’s reckoning, suggest court filings as part of an ongoing case in the Kerala High Court. The case …

A study conducted by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 36 countries found that two-thirds of sexually active women who wished to delay or limit childbearing stopped using contraception for the fear of side effects, health concerns and underestimation of the likelihood of conception. This led to one in four …