-The Hindu Health-care workers at the primary level must be given the knowledge and skills to provide NCD and associated risk factor care. Noncommunicable diseases (NCD) such as diabetes, respiratory diseases, cancer and heart diseases are taking a severe toll on public health across the WHO South-East Asia Region. Approximately 8.5 million lives, many of them premature, are lost each year due to NCDs, making them the region’s leading cause of death...

-The Hindu The Mental Health Care Bill, 2016, passed by the Rajya Sabha is a watershed legislation that lays down clear responsibilities for the state and has provisions that empower individuals and families. Crucially, it can expand access to treatment, which is dismally poor today. According to a recent review in The Lancet, of gaps in mental health treatment, although both India and China have renewed their commitment to address the...

-The Hindu We need to rethink social safety nets in India’s growing economy so that they can also focus on the accidents of life rather than solely on the accidents of birth. Sometimes the grand narratives of the Left and the Right do not seem to have any relationship with the lived experiences of ordinary Indians. For the past two decades, the Left has tried to expand social welfare programmes for the...

-The Hindu India must convert its young population to a competitive advantage, and nutrition and health are foundational to that outcome. The “Global Nutrition Report 2016” once again demonstrates India’s slow overall progress in addressing chronic malnutrition, manifest in stunting (low weight for age), wasting (low weight for height), micronutrient deficiencies and over-weight. Our track record in reducing the proportion of undernourished children over the past decade has been modest at best,...

-The Hindu By asking five prominent private hospitals in the national capital to deposit nearly Rs.600 crore to compensate for their failure to treat poor patients, the Delhi government has drawn attention to the social obligation of healthcare providers in the corporate sector as well as the need for timely enforcement of applicable regulations. According to the Kejriwal government, trusts and registered societies to which public land was allotted to establish...