At the tail end of a panel discussion on women’s participation in environmental policy, held in conjunction with the 54th United Nations Commission on the Status of Women meeting earlier this month, Polk uttered a word often considered wise to avoid in women’s advocacy: population.

“The population is at nearly 7 billion right now. We’ve eaten just about everything we can eat out of the ocean and off the land,” Polk told about 60 women at the gathering, hosted by the New York-based interfaith organization Temple of Understanding. “We can forget about any rights-based approaches if we have too many people, because we’ll all lose all our rights.”

Sadhguru puts it a lot simpler:

The biggest disaster is that human beings have multiplied irresponsibly like never before on this planet.

Many refer to it as ‘nature’s curse on women’. It’s commonly thought of as unclean. In some cultures, women are not even allowed to cook during those days of month. But, path-breaking new research could change the way people view the menstrual cycle. And it’s here in India, for the first time ever. The blood that uselessly leaks away from a woman’s body every month until she hits menopause is a good source of stem cells, which are still at an early stage of development and retain the potential to turn into many different types of cell.

Traditionally there is a huge taboo on menstruation here, but it’s nice to see this article turn that on its head.

Research is ongoing but if established as a success, it would be a huge advance for stem cell research. Stem cell therapy has become controversial in some parts of the world because scientists believe the most useful ones come from embryos. Adult stem cells are rare in mature tissue. But if they are sourced from hitherto-useless, “unclean” menstrual blood, it would redefine the woman’s role as life-giver.

According to TOI,

The exit of British television celebrity Jade Goody from the reality show Big Boss was a shocker. But what surprised most was the revelation of the fatal disease – cervical cancer that Goody was detected with. The word ‘Cervic Cancer’ since then has been googled infinite times (according to Google Trends) in the past one week thus revealing the immense curiosity, coupled with a lack of awareness about the cancer.

The growing risk of cervical cancer in women in India (aged 0-64 years) is 2.4% compared to 1.3% for the world.

Since I don’t really trust the TOI as a source of reliable information, especially when it comes to health, please click here for more information regarding prevention and treatment of this cancer.

I was amazed to read this:

Since the age of 16, Goody said she has had four smear tests to detect cervical cancer, which all showed up pre-cancerous cells in her womb.

She said she had had treatment three weeks ago following an abnormal smear test, after she collapsed at her home in Essex.

But she was given the all-clear and decided to go ahead with the India trip because she was being paid £100,000 and needed the money, she said.

Cervical cancer is entirely preventable when detected early, by smear tests and there are common techniques available to remove the pre-cancerous cells. Is it the fault of the NHS for not providing her this treatment? The Mail says:

Her publicist Max Clifford, who is paying for the tests, says her condition should have been diagnosed earlier.

He said: ‘What has happened to Jade is very wrong and very worrying.

‘According to the doctor I have put her in touch with this should have been diagnosed a long time ago.

‘Thankfully Jade is now with the best people there are, having thorough investigations and then the treatment she desperately needs.’

In the US, the HPV vaccine, Gardasil, has come under much scrutiny and huge debates have ensued (mostly among conservatives) over whether or not the mandatory vaccination of girls may promote sexual activity.

Apparently in the UK the ‘jab’ will be routinised amongst 12-13 year old girls next month, and The Telegraph reports that now older women may be eligible for it:

Professor Margaret Stanley, an adviser to the HPV sub-group of the Joint Committee for Vaccination and Immunisation, described the move as a “remarkable volte-face”.

“Vaccinating older girls and women who have active sexual lives will have an effect but it will be much less than immunising the virgins,” she said.

“There is the real anxiety that these older girls and women may think that they had had a magic bullet, are protected, don’t go for their smears and the cancers aren’t picked up at an early stage.”

Ministers at the Department of Health were said to have chosen the cheaper Cervarix vaccine over the more expensive Gardasil to avoid any extra expense.

A DoH spokeswoman confirmed ministers were considering a possible extension: “We are looking at the most effective uses for the vaccine and are currently assessing the strengths and weaknesses of offering it to over 18s, including cost effectiveness.”

But she added: “There is no evidence that extending the vaccination to over 18s would deter women from having smear tests. Receiving the vaccine could in fact provide an opportunity to remind women of the need for screening.”

This is a heartening story from the front page, to do away with all the stories of sex-selection and missing girls in Rajasthan:

Benefactors wrote a new chapter in the history of the state infamous for female infanticides, when they saved the life of a seven-month-old baby girl. Yogita was brought back from the brink of death after ‘Bhamashahs’ – as good samaritans are known here – pooled in the required funds for her surgery.

Born with a rare disease – transposition of great arteries with a defect in the right ventricle – doctors had put Yogita’s life to just a few days. For her father Vinod Bhoi, who works as a peon with a cloth merchant in Padra village of Dungarpur district, funding the expensive cardiac surgery was next to impossible.

It was an initiative taken by the Dungarpur collector Neeraj Kumar Pawan which changed the way things stood for Yogita. Contributions flooded in, mostly from local benefactors, and Yogita underwent the Rs 5 lakh “arterial switch” surgery at Delhi’s Escorts Hospital on July 17.

Interesting, though, that in the photo the mother’s face is blocked out by who I imagine to be the collector. Note also that the administration will also cover her future treatment and education.

I wonder why the collector decided to take the initiative. Regardless of the reasons (let’s hope it wasn’t to boost his reputation), the girl’s life has been saved and that speaks for itself. The cynic in me wants to believe that it’s just a publicity stunt; after all, how many girls are not so lucky? Yet the optimist is appreciative that at least one more girl has made it this far.