-The Times of India CHENNAI: The World Health Organization says close to one in seven people in India are at risk of contracting malaria. In a report that should worry public health officials, it says India, along with Ethiopia, Pakistan and Indonesia accounts for 80% of all malaria cases worldwide, but the country allocates the lowest funding for malaria control in the world. The report, based on the data collated by the National...

-Economic and Political Weekly Since independence, India's national health policies have been aspirational but the end results have been limited. The National Health Policy 2015, which is in the process of being finalised, should, in place of the earlier "broadband" approach, adopt a "narrow focus" on primary healthcare through the National Rural Health Mission. The latter has focused on primary healthcare and has shown visible results. A slew of suggestions as...

-Down to Earth The primary health centre (PHC) at Ajara block in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district would handle just eight childbirth cases a year till 2011. Today, it handles over 125 such cases in a year. The health centre became efficient because of a Central government scheme that empowers communities to monitor public health services. In 2010, the residents participated in a jan sunwai (public hearing) session, in which they told senior...

-The Hindu   An improvement in sanitation and cleanliness will eliminate much of the difference in malnutrition between India and the rest of the world, and across Indian States Historically the greatest advances in longevity and mortality reduction have come not from treatment of individual disease but from public health. This includes modern drainage and sewerage systems (sewage treatment plants), drinking water systems that produce and deliver disease-free water and solid waste disposal...

-Press Information Bureau (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) Public health is a state subject. National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme and under NRHM, financial support is provided to States/UTs to strengthening their health care delivery system including support for engaging ASHAs and patient transport ambulances and development of health infrastructure in rural areas based on the requirements posed by the States/UTs in their Programme Implementation...