-Outlook Drawing ire for attributing Gujarat's high rate of malnutrition to young "beauty conscious" girls, Chief Minister Narendra Modi today launched the 'Gujarat State Nutrition Mission (GSNM)', offering financial aid to village panchayats to combat the problem. Aimed at combating malnutrition in Gujarat, the mission got off to a symbolic start with the chief minister distributing cheques of Rs 2 lakh each to headmen of a few panchayats out of around 18,392...

-Frontline A study finds that institutional support alone cannot help reduce maternal mortality in India.  THE high rate of maternal mortality in India has been a cause for national concern, especially on account of the focus on reaching the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Although there is a growing realisation that it will be difficult to meet the MDG targets by that deadline, there is a renewed interest in the...

-Frontline Health activists say the health chapter of the Twelfth Plan document exaggerates the role of the private sector in providing health care. The draft chapter on health for the Twelfth Five Year Plan document not only is grossly inadequate in its approach but exaggerates to unrealistic levels the role of the private sector in providing health care. It invokes the concept of universal health care (UHC), but, critics say, it...

-The Times of India The present food Bill legalises the injustices of a targeted distribution system A national campaign throughout the month of July on issues related to food security and against rising prices will culminate in a five-day sit-in protest in Delhi beginning today. These are issues fundamental to the well-being of the majority of our people and therefore deserve national support.   With the spectre of drought haunting the countryside, speculators, hoarders...

-The Hindu Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre provides care, rehabilitation for free Around 10 days ago, when 15-month-old Dundavva was brought to the Nutritional Rehabilitation Centre (NRC) at the government hospital here, she was critically malnourished. Now, after her stay at the centre, she is not only recovering from chest infection, but is also gaining weight. An anganwadi worker brought Dundavva and her mother, Sharada, to the centre from Matyal village in Basavanabagewadi taluk. Pilot project Like Dundavva,...