Second biggest cause of female cancer mortality

Cervical cancer is sexually transmitted. It is caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), which affects the tissues of the cervix, the lower end of the uterus. Other risk factors of getting HPV include intercourse at an early age, multiple sexual partners, smoking and HIV, which lowers immunity. Smoking produces chemicals that damage cervical cells, making them vulnerable to infections. One can also catch the infection in unhygienic conditions such as open toilets. Genetic predisposition, exposure to carcinogens and radiation can also cause the disease.

In their own language

Naresh Chauhan is the fastest editor in the studio of Gurgaon Ki Awaaz, a community radio channel of rural Gurgaon. A Class X dropout with no experience of computer operations until nine months ago, Chauhan runs a programme called Gurgaon Sports.

Women grow food basket

Whenever I went missing as a child, my mother would come looking for me in the pata, Lalitabai Meshram said, laughing out loud. My friends and I would play in the tangled vines for hours, making dolls of corn husk and hair, eating groundnuts, beans and waluk melon. Sometimes I would fall asleep there, recalled Meshram, now 50-plus.

Science

PLANT SCIENCES Never too late Flowers are more resilient than they appear. They shoot up against all odds. The credit goes to genetic matter called microRNA that inhibit protein formation crucial to flowering in

A lesson for the civil servant

Book>> Beyond Relocation, The Imperative of Sustainable Resettlement Edited by Renu Modi Sage Rs 850

FROM THE BLURBS

THE INTERNATIONAL LAW OF THE SEA by O P Sharma, Oxford University Press, Rs 795 The law of the sea has undergone more changes in the last 60 years than in the past 100. This book deals with some of the changes. The author analyzes concepts like ocean governance, the limitations on the freedom of the seas and looks at the importance of maritime cooperation in various spheres of the law of the sea. GLOBAL ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRISIS: ESSAYS FROM ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY, Orient Blackswan, Rs 350 Many see the current economic

Not the morning after remedy

Overuse of emergency contraceptives can kill A 21-year-old came to the Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi, bleeding profusely. She had had an emergency contraceptive pill within three days of unprotected intercourse. She thought the bleeding was a side effect of the pill. But she was informed she was pregnant and the foetus had implanted in her fallopian tube. The doctor prepared for an abortion.

Local politics

In 1992, when the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments institutionalized Panchayati Raj, many criticized the legislations as utopian. Many doubting Thomases said rural India was not ready for self-governance. Today, states are outdoing one another by reserving quotas for women and offering incentives to other excluded groups. Panchayati Raj seems to have travelled a distance.

From the blurbs

Good Women Do Not Inherit Land, Politics of Land and Gender in India by Nitya Rao, Orient Blackswan, Hyderabad, Rs 795 This book takes us to the lives and anxieties of Santhal women in two villages of Dumka district, Jharkhand. The life histories span different social patterns but all of them relate to rights in landed property, and their own troubled identities in the backdrop of harsh living conditions. Development Communication in Practice: India and the Millenium Development Goals by J V Vilanilam, Sage, Delhi, Rs 450

From the blurbs

Gender Discrimination in Land Ownership edited by Prem Chowdhry, Sage Publications, Delhi, Rs 795 Customs and practices, Shastric prescriptions and Muslim personal laws made their way into colonial laws and got consolidated in the post-colonial period through various Union, state and concurrent laws.They placed fetters on women owning land. This volume analyses the different degrees of discrimination meted out to women by the country's inheritance laws. Democracy and Development in India