-The Hindu Preconception nutrition, maternal nutrition and child feeding practices in the first 1,000 days of life need priority As India launches the celebrations of its 75th anniversary of Independence, there is much to be proud about; significant advances have been made in science, technology, and medicine, adding to the country’s ancient, traditional, and civilisational knowledge base, wisdom and wealth. Still, it is disconcerting that even after seven decades of Independence, India is...

-The Hindu The recent global recognition for India’s ASHAs should be used as a chance to iron out the challenges in the programme India’s one million Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) volunteers have received arguably the biggest international recognition in form of the World Health Organization’s Global Health Leaders Awards 2022. The ASHAs were among the six awardees announced at the 75th World Health Assembly in Geneva. This World Health Organization (WHO)...

-TheCitizen.in Improved antenatal care in Meghalaya A recent report submitted on March 20 to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) from the state of Meghalaya showed that 877 newborns, and 61 pregnant women died during the pandemic. The pregnant women decided against hospital delivery out of fear of contracting Covid. A decade ago, infant mortality in Meghalaya was the same as the all-India average, at 47 deaths per 1000 births. While it has...

-The Wire Science There is reason to celebrate the drop of India’s maternal mortality rate: the decline is consistent and continuous, indicating that the reproductive health of India’s women is getting better. However, a closer look at the state-level MMR data reveals that the all-India three-year average of maternal deaths camouflages the performance of some states. We can predict that the Empowered Action Group states and Assam will have to redouble their...

In the previous news alert, we looked at the under-nutrition problem in the Bundelkhand region in terms of 3 indicators -- proportion of children under 5 years who are stunted (height-for-age); proportion of children under 5 years who are wasted (weight-for-height); and proportion of children under 5 years who are underweight (weight-for-age). However, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data also indicates that severe under-nutrition like severe wasting and anaemia among...