IT was once thought that fertility below a level could not be achieved without changes in the material conditions of the people.

In this report, we propose new measures of wanted and unwanted fertility based on actual and wanted parity progression ratios, and we apply these procedures to NFHS data for eight states in India.

Child abuse manifests itself in several forms and dimensions - physical exploitation (child labour), emotional trauma (child prostitution) and marital harassment (child marriage).

On the World Population Day this year, there were two new features which are welcome: the first is the concern for environment in the context of population growth; and the second is the candid admission by the Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare that we must get rid of the tyranny of fami

Sexual abuse of children is an issue shrouded in ignorance and denial in our country. One of the chief reasons for this conspiracy of silence is the high value, almost idealization, of the family.

It is now common practice to infer the social status of women from their demographic characteristics. Yet it is not so easy to read through demographic progress, in terms of declines in mortality and fertility, to make unambiguous judgments about trends in women's social standing.

A number of recent studies [A] [D] have documented evidence to show that couples have a decided preference for a particular sex combination of children. For example, in many South Asian countries, including India, there is a strong preference for sons over daughters.

A society is judged by the way it treats its women and children. So is a judicial system. Nothing is more horrifying than the sexual abuse of a child: nothing more reprehensible than a judicial system that subsequently victimises the victim, police behaviour that adds terror to agony.