The social audit of all childcare homes across the country was ordered in 2018 when cases of sexual exploitation of girls were reported from childcare institutions in Deoria in Uttar Pradesh and Muzaffarpur in Bihar.

Shahid Jameel, recipient of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, also said that the country had already reached community transmission a long time ago.

"Confinement is fostering the tension and strain created by security, health, and money worries. And it is increasing isolation for women with violent partners, separating them from the people and resources that can best help them. It's a perfect storm for controlling, violent behaviour behind closed doors," UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said in a statement calling the violence against women and girls 'a shadow pandemic'.

Welcoming the reduction in pollution, environmentalists urged the government to treat it as a "wake-up call" and stop its "obsession" with "development" at the cost of the environment.

'All the hotels and restaurants from where I used to eat have been shut. I used to beg but now there is no one to give me alms too'

The Centre has put the blame on state governments while state governments complain that money is not released for the proposals given by them to the Empowered Committee that has been tasked with recommending proposals to be funded under this framework.

The Aam Aadmi Party's Party's East Delhi candidate Atishi talks on her competition against the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, the former cricketer -- Gautam Gambhir, and her agenda for the polls.

'We will be voting keeping in mind the brunt we bore because of demonetisation and high GST rate'

Right from the first week, Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi said, the BJP-led government showed "zero tolerance" towards brutalities against women. "I am confident that a time of gender equality would come. We ensured women gets the basic necessities of toilets, electricity and gas cylinders to make their lives easy."

Rickshaw pullers and construction workers are the worst hit.

"The issue is not whether India is first or third or fourth, the issue is that this perception should be taken seriously to set our house in order".