Sherin Mathews, the three-year- old Indian girl whose adoptive father claimed that she choked while drinking milk, was "adjusting well" at her new home in the US but feeding her was becoming a challenge, according to reports submitted to the nodal adoption agency in India. But her case has raised serious questions over the adoption norms and policies at large. Continue Reading..

When workers in a timber factory in South Africa heard a baby crying outside, they went out looking for it. Finally, they found a baby boy that had been buried alive in a shallow grave. After rescuing the baby from the makeshift grave, they were able to confirm that the baby had been left there to die by his mother three days ago. The 25-year-old mother also works in the timber factory in the town of Paddock, in KwaZulu-Natal Province, eastern South Africa. She confessed to the police that she had buried her baby with sand and timber from the factory. Continue Reading..

Exposure and abandonment of child under twelve years, by parent or person having care of it. Whoever being the father or mother of a child under the age of twelve years, or having the care of such child, shall expose or leave such child in any place with the intention of wholly abandoning such child, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, or with fine, or with both. The relatively less understanding of IPC 317 prevents the trial of the offender for murder or culpable homicide, as the case may be, if the child dies in consequence of the exposure. Continue Reading..

Landholding can affect marital prospects. It can also affect sex ratios and lead to polyandry. A village in Alwar provides a snapshot. Mankhera is a small village located about 66 km from Alwar, Rajasthan. Its population comprises mainly the jat community with only a handful of brahmin and dalit households. Continue Reading..

A saline abortion is performed by injecting the caustic saline solution into the amniotic fluid that surrounds an unborn baby in the second trimester. The baby breathes in the fluid, which burns her lungs and scorches her skin, causing her to die within several hours. The mother then goes through labor to give birth to the dead baby.This type of abortion is performed for incresed success rate. Continue Reading..

The practice of infanticide has taken many forms over time. Child sacrifice to supernatural figures or forces, such as that believed to have been practiced in ancient Carthage, may be only the most notorious example in the ancient world. Anthropologist Laila Williamson notes that "Infanticide has been practiced on every continent and by people on every level of cultural complexity, from hunter gatherers to high civilizations, including our own ancestors. Rather than being an exception, then, it has been the rule. Continue Reading..