-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The Women and Child Development ministry has written to all states and union territories that there isn't enough evidence to support the use of Ready-to-Use-Therapeutic foods (RUTF) for the management of severe acute malnutrition (SAM). This is a blow to the multi-crore complex of international NGOs who push packaged food as a strategy to address severe malnutrition and companies that produce them. The WCD letter pointed...

-The Indian Express The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the state government seeking its report within six weeks on the deaths of infants. Ranchi: Amid Congress raising the issue of deaths of infants in Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College Hospital (MGMMCH) in Jamshedpur, the District Judge on Tuesday visited the premises to carry out an inspection, taking suo motu cognisance on the issue. The National Human Rights...

-Livemint.com The Gorakhpur tragedy must be seen against the larger backdrop of public health failure in Uttar Pradesh The recent tragedy of more than 85 children and newborns who died in Gorakhpur has, not for the first time, put the spotlight starkly on the country’s ailing public health system. The lack of all things important to human settlements—sanitation, disease surveillance, primary healthcare, tertiary hospitals, resources, life-saving equipment, political will and public health...

-Hindustan Times Swadeshi Jagran Manch says programme to distribute dietary supplement packets to fight malnourishment benefits private players New Delhi: RSS’s offshoot Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) has urged the government to not rely on dietary supplement packets to help malnourished children since it will benefit large corporations. The SJM said the programme to begin ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) begun in BJP-ruled Rajasthan and Maharashtra has proved to be an “expensive and unsustainable” exercise. More...

-The Indian Express Gorakhpur was only the acute manifestation of the chronic malady that ails our health system Outrage is a natural reaction to the terrible tragedy that cruelly crushed the lives of many innocent children in Gorakhpur. However, outrage is a wasted emotion if it is not accompanied by honest introspection to identify all contributory causes and followed by a cluster of corrective actions. The deaths of these children were caused...