-The Hindu West Bengal: A unique initiative involving the West Bengal Health Department and a non-government organisation here on Monday has brought hope to mentally ill patients of Kolkata's Pavlov Hospital. Ostracized by society and abandoned by their family members, patients of the biggest mental Health facility in West Bengal can now dream of financial independence and a life beyond the confines of the hospital. A memorandum of understanding for Dhobhi Ghar,...

-The New York Times NEW DELHI: Her first child survived eight months before succumbing to pneumonia; her second was stillborn; her third, delivered in a rickshaw, gasped for an hour before dying. When she got pregnant for a fourth time, Juhi, a woman from a South Delhi slum who uses only one name, was spotted by a local Health worker and taken to a mobile clinic. A doctor diagnosed severe anemia, gave...

-Reuters NEW DELHI: India's main public Health programmes, aimed at millions of rural poor, have been in disarray for months because the government changed the way that over $1.3 billion of central funds were distributed, according to data and letters seen by Reuters. In a bid last year to give states more power, the Union Health ministry started sending funds for public Health programmes to state treasuries, instead of direct transfers to...

-The Telegraph Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar today charged the Centre with abolishing the Backward Regions Grant Fund (BRGF) in "clear violation" of the Act mandated by Parliament and said he was thinking of moving court against the decision. "I met Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on February 26 and specifically apprised him that the BRGF abolition was in contravention of the Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000. The special assistance under BRGF had...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked the ministries of social justice and Health and family welfare to respond to a plea to set up homes for senior citizens across the country because "over-ambitious" children were increasingly neglecting their aged parents. Justices Madan B. Lokur and U.U. Lalit, however, refrained from issuing notices to the Centre, states and Union territories on three other pleas: a national commission for senior citizens,...