-The Hindu The huge deficit in blood availability outside urban centres must jolt the government into legalising unbanked blood supply Twenty-year-old Putul, living in a village 70 km from a district headquarters town in Chhattisgarh, had been in labour for two days and a night. It was her first pregnancy. In order to hasten labour, the local Quack administered several injections that increased her uterine contractions. Forty hours after the onset of...

-New Indian Express A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare has come down heavily on Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad’s ambitious plan to plug the huge shortfall in the rural healthcare sector with science graduates. Expressing surprise at the minister’s proposal, the panel headed by BSP MP Brijesh Pathak said, “Instead of providing doctors in villages, the Centre is coming up with a scheme to get...

-Live Mint Health ministry’s plan for a shorter medical degree course is aimed at addressing manpower shortage in rural healthcare A parliamentary committee on Tuesday rejected the health ministry’s plan to introduce a shorter medical degree course aimed at addressing manpower shortages in rural healthcare. It said the proposed Bachelor in Rural Healthcare course would legitimize differences in the quality of medical treatment in rural and urban settings.   “We discussed the issue at length...

-The Times of India Jitendra Choudhury will probably never forget March 2, 2013, the day he was hung from a tree for beating his wife. A kangaroo court in Bokaro held at the behest of JMM legislator Jagannath Mahto reportedly meted out this medieval-style justice after his wife complained that he often got drunk and misbehaved with her. Primitive, powerful and potent, large swathes of India are still governed by kangaroo courts...

-The Times of India MANDLA/JABALPUR: Tribals in Kundam, a settlement 40 km off Jabalpur, call it a black demon, one who strikes select families and ensures an early and agonizing death by sucking its victims white. For once, medical experts couldn't agree more with this home spun wisdom that aptly describes sickle cell - an incurable genetic disorder which damages vital organs like liver, kidney, heart and spleen. The disease manifest at...