-Down to Earth Nine states, which have fertility rates well below the replacement rate, will have an aged population by 2030s India’s population growth rate will decline faster than assumed, according to the Economic Survey 2018-19. In fact, the fertility rate in many states has reached the replacement rate. “India is set to witness a sharp slowdown in population growth in the next two decades,” analysed the Economic Survey. "The country will enjoy...

-The Indian Express Deaths in Muzaffarpur are due to chronic malnutrition Muzaffarpur in Bihar is famous for litchis and infamous for children dying due to annual seasonal brain disease outbreaks. The common brain diseases in children with high mortality are meningitis, encephalitis and encephalopathy. These three have clear-cut differences and very different treatments. Trained paediatricians know how to distinguish the three. If diagnostic criteria are not applied for various reasons, then...

-The Hindu It is imperative to promote community-based care rather than relying only on hospital services The deaths of 154 children in Bihar due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) has laid bare the precarious capacity of the State’s healthcare apparatus to handle outbreaks. AES has been linked to two factors: litchi consumption by starving children and a long, ongoing heat wave. As promises of bolstering the health infrastructure are being made, it...

-Newslaundry.com There were those who milked the AES outbreak for TRPs. And there were those who helped out while carrying out their journalistic duties. Even as Bihar mourns the deaths of over 150 children owing to Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES), a section of the media milked the grave situation to boost TRPs. Some journalists irresponsibly barged into the ICUs of one of the hospitals treating most of the children for live...

-Scroll.in They lost their money after Delhi’s municipal corporation was split into three districts in 2013. Kamru Jamaal’s life would be easier if he got the monthly pension of Rs 1,000 that New Delhi’s municipal corporations are supposed to pay their poor senior citizens. At 73, he makes a living driving a cycle-rickshaw on the streets of North Delhi’s Kingsway Camp area. “I can’t remember how long I haven’t been paid a pension,”...