DEVELOPMENT is about protection of human rights of the concerned populations. It pre-supposes active participation of the populace in the decisionmaking processes while social justice remains one of the most important and cherished goals of development.

This report examines the linkages between wife-beating and one health-related consequence for women, their experience of fetal and infant mortality.

THE United Nations Commission on the Status of Women defines violence against women to include "any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women..." [Economic and Social Council 1992].

As with Bhanwari Devi, gross injustice was committed in the Roop Kanwar sati case, when yet another session court in Rajasthan, acquitted all 32 of the accused in October last year.