Air quality in North India in general and Delhi National Capital Region (Delhi NCR) in particular plunged to its lowest point in recent years during October-November thanks to a variety of factors. Through media reports one comes to know that stubble burning (also called paddy straw burning/ crop residue burning) is chiefly responsible for the Public Health crisis in India's capital and its nearby regions. Data accessed from the website...
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Air pollution in Delhi-NCR: Act, for your children's sake -Sunita Narain
-Down to Earth We are doing too little too late We can’t breathe in Delhi. It is a Public Health emergency as pollutants in the air have spiked to extremely toxic levels. Officially, the air quality is in the severe+ zone, which means that it is bad for even the healthy, forget about what it will do to our children, aged and the already vulnerable. But what I want to discuss is...
More »Explained: What National Health Profile says about targeted, actual health spend -Abantika Ghosh
-The Indian Express The National Health Profile (NHP) is an annual stocktaking exercise on the health of the health sector. At a time when Universal Health Coverage has become the new buzzword of healthcare in India since Ayushman Bharat, the National Health Profile 2019 throws up sobering figures. Between 2009-10 and 2018-19, India’s Public Health spend as a percentage of GDP went up by just 0.16 percentage points from 1.12% to...
More »We need to ask why India lags behind its neighbours in combating hunger, malnutrition -Harsh Mander
-The Indian Express Among all the countries included in the report, India has the highest rate of child wasting (which rose from the 2008-2012 level of 16.5 per cent to 20.8 per cent). Its child stunting rate (at 37.9 per cent) also remains shockingly high. The abiding disgrace of new India is that despite unprecedented quantities of wealth and the vulgar ostentation which has become customary in the gaudy glitter of...
More »India's TB report must be seen in light of the country's slide in Hunger Index -Shah Alam Khan
-The Indian Express With a virtually unregulated private health system, an increase in notification of TB patients could be heartening for the government. But for the Public Health system, it is bad news. Over the last month or so, we saw some important documentation on India’s Public Health. The Annual India Tuberculosis (TB) report was released by the government on September 26. India is now home to about a quarter of...
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