-Down to Earth This water causes diarrhoeal diseases that kill 800 children every day, mostly in India, Afghanistan and Congo To limit the spread of disease and reduce environmental pollution, human waste (excreta) needs to be safely contained and effectively treated. Yet 4.2 billion people, more than half of the world’s population, lack access to safe sanitation. In developing countries, each person produces, on average, six litres of toilet wastewater each day. Based...

-The Indian Express Budget needs to ramp up spending on health and education. Pandemic has enhanced inequalities, shown up absence of safety nets. India is committed to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030, and social sector development is important in reaching them. Progress in this sector has intrinsic (for its own sake) and instrumental (for higher growth) value. It is needed even to build a $5 trillion economy faster. Inequalities...

-The Indian Express Anganwadi workers, ASHAs, ANMs and anganwadi supervisors can work together with panchayat members to ensure that all children and mothers are covered with immunisation, antenatal care, maternity benefits and nutrition services On an MGNREGA worksite in Kolar, Karnataka, a male worker came up to me and said that men ought to be paid more than women. I asked him why. “Adhu yaavaagalu hange,” he replied: That was how it...

-The Indian Express The latest National Family Health Survey data shows that in several parts of India, children born between 2014 and 2019 are more malnourished than the previous generation Dear Readers, Consider some of the biggest challenges facing the world — armed conflict, chronic disease, education, infectious disease, population growth, biodiversity, climate change, hunger & malnutrition, natural disasters, Water and Sanitation. What would be your response if you were given billions of dollars...

-The Indian Express This is one of the startling revelations in the first-phase data of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2019-20 — released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on December 12 — and marks a shift since the last NFHS in 2015-16. Several states across the country have reversed course and recorded worsening levels of child malnutrition despite dramatic improvements in sanitation and better access to fuel...