More Than 19,000 Children Died In Maharashtra In 12 Months: Health Minister
MUMBAI: As many as 19,799 children died in Maharashtra between April 2017 and March 2018 due to various reasons, including poor weight and respiratory illnesses, Health Minister Deepak Sawant has said.
The main reasons of death during the period were poor weight at the time of birth, premature delivery, contagious diseases, congenital respiratory illnesses and deformities, besides others, he said in a written reply during the recently concluded Monsoon Session of the Legislative Council in Nagpur.
The ages of the children who died were not mentioned in the minister's statement.
Listing out measures taken up to prevent such deaths, Mr Sawant said the women and child development department, under its schemes through anganwadis (state-run women and child care centres), is providing nutritious food, health check-ups, pre-school education and vaccinations to children.
Pregnant women are being provided free treatment for 42 days after child delivery and ill children are given free medical aid until the age of one year, he said.
"The other services include blood transfusion, making available vehicles (like ambulance in case of an emergency) and information on nutritious food," he said.
The public health department has also initiated various schemes under which complete physical check-up of a pregnant woman is done and the health of newborns is checked periodically, and essential vaccines are given to them, Mr Sawant added.
courtesy : ndtv.com
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Madras HC strikes down TN order limiting maternity leave for third child
Chennai: The Madras High Court has set aside a Tamil Nadu government order restricting maternity leave for a third pregnancy to 12 weeks, holding the move to be contrary to established legal principles.
A division bench comprising Justices R Suresh Kumar and N Senthil Kumar ruled that there was no justification to treat third pregnancies differently from the first two, observing that the physical and medical requirements of childbirth remain the same irrespective of the number of pregnancies, as reported by The News Minute.
According to a report published by Live Law, the court was hearing a petition filed by Shayee Nisha, a staff member of the district judiciary in Villupuram, whose request for maternity leave from February 2026 to February 2027 had been curtailed to three months by authorities citing the March 13, 2026 government order.
Quashing the decision of the Principal District Judge and related directions asking her to resume duty, the bench directed that she be granted maternity leave on par with that provided for earlier pregnancies, allowing up to 365 days.
The court noted that both the Supreme Court of India and earlier rulings of the High Court had consistently held that maternity benefits cannot be denied for a third child. Holding the restriction to be unsustainable, the court directed authorities to process maternity leave applications without discrimination based on the number of pregnancies.
It also pointed out that a similar issue had been addressed by a division bench earlier this year, which had disapproved denial of maternity leave in such cases and directed that its ruling be circulated among judicial officers. Despite this, the state issued the impugned order, the bench observed.
