-Scroll.in Untouchability was outlawed in 1950, but discrimination and segregation of the scheduled caste remains pervasive. Musahars, a Scheduled Caste that sections of Hindu society deem untouchable, are still being denied government entitlements such as state pensions and housing. The discrimination is blatant when it comes to accessing government healthcare in Badagaon administrative block of Varanasi district in Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous province. The scourge of discrimination is so pervasive that...

-PTI NEW DELHI: From running street clinics to giving free-of-cost treatment to poor and homeless, many doctors in old Delhi's Chandni Chowk area are going beyond their line of duty to serve people. A team of three doctors set up a street clinic near the Baptist Church every morning to tend to the poor before going to their work. "I come here for two hours in the morning, tend to those with wounds...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre's proposed rates of reimbursement to hospitals for various medical procedures under the National Health Protection Scheme are low and unsustainable and could compromise patient safety, an organisation representing hospitals has told the government. The Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI) has said the proposed rates are in general significantly lower than the costs that large tertiary-care hospitals typically incur on medical procedures.     The NHPS, announced...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: Fortis Healthcare today said its subsidiary Escort Heart Institute & Research Centre has been directed to deposit Rs 503.36 crore to Director General of Health Services within a month on account of unwarranted profit. Fortis said Escort Heart Institute & Research Centre (EHIRCL) had received an order dated June 9, 2016, from Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) for the recovery of Rs 503.36 crore on account...

-Civil Society News New Delhi: In 1974, Dr Samir Chaudhuri, a paediatrician working in Kolkata’s slums, founded Child in Need Institute (CINI) to tackle the many dimensions of child malnutrition. It struck him at the time that malnutrition wasn’t just a clinical problem but a complex phenomenon rooted in gender issues. Over the years, led by Dr Chaudhuri, CINI developed deep understanding of the social, economic and political underpinnings of malnutrition...