There is a huge shortage of human resource in the sector The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry has set up a task force to frame the curriculum for the Bachelor of Rural Health Care course, which is expected to be rolled out in a few months. A new cadre of health care workers for rural India is expected to help in overcoming the huge shortage of human resource in the...

Sujatha Sundaran, 25, sits on a rickety bench and points to a rubber nursery that was a helipad about a decade ago in Mundakkai colony in the heart of Kerala’s northern district of Kasargod. Local children used to watch with awe as the choppers flew overhead and sprayed the insecticide endosulfan on the cashew groves of the Plantation Corp. of Kerala Ltd, a state government undertaking. She was eight when she...

The Centre wants all `kutcha' houses to be replaced by durable, disaster-resistant structures by 2016-17. It forms the big expression of intent in the first-of-its-kind `rural housing and habitat policy' that UPA may announce soon. The government wants to engage NGOs in rural housing, a sector the voluntary organisations have shunned till now. The government feels the rural populace will benefit from NGOs in the field of "technology dissemination" and...

A new package has been chalked out for private health institutions with a view to extending the benefit of Janani Sahyogi Yojana to women living below poverty line. Giving this information, Minister for Public Health, Family Welfare, Medical Education and AYUSH Anup Mishra said fees has been determined for pre-natal, natal and post-natal medicare. A first installment of Rs 50 thousand will be given to the private medical institutions with...

Hours before the Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram met on Friday, the Planning Commission is understood to have released Rs.982 crore to the Madhya Pradesh government for rehabilitation of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims. There was no official word on the reported approval of funds. The funds released for sustainable economic and medical rehabilitation of the victims would need the approval of the GoM, official...