-The United Nations   The United Nations tomorrow will mark World Hepatitis Day for the first time to bring attention to the disease that affects almost one in every three persons on Earth. “We know what needs to be done,” said Margaret Chan, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). “Viral hepatitis is one of the most prevalent and serious infectious diseases in the world. It deserves much more attention, understanding and...

People who play doctor or heed quackery are biting off more than they can chew Whenever a patient with bleeding in the stomach or a child whose fever has not subsided in a week is admitted into Sasaram-based physician B.B. Singh’s clinic, he immediately knows that it’s a case of self-medication. “At least 40-50 per cent of my patients have either had sleeping pills, or antibiotics, or painkillers without a...

  Can we agree in this country on a floor of human dignity below which we will not allow any human being to fall? No child, woman or man in this land will sleep hungry. No person shall be forced to sleep under the open sky. No parent shall send their child out to work instead of to school. And no one shall die because they cannot afford the cost of...

Policies aiming to combat malnutrition are ignoring an entire generation of women whose overall health has a direct bearing on children’s growth, say advocacy groups and researchers Cradling a frail son on her hip and with a plastic bag stuffed with clothes in one hand, Tara Jadam walked into the rehabilitation centre inside the district hospital here to spend the next two weeks. On a hot afternoon, she has walked several miles...

It would be sad if the potential of cash transfers was lost as a result of hasty posturing by those on various sides of the debate. The fact is that, in India today, poverty and economic insecurity remain endemic in spite of fantastic economic growth. The existing system has failed to arrest the growing number in poverty, despite substantial government spending ostensibly designed to reduce poverty. Could cash transfers help? A...