When the entire country celebrates Diwali this year with spectacular fireworks, there will be silence in the homes of dozens of families in Sivakasi, the national fireworks capital. These families have members who have either been killed or grievously injured due to blasts at the firecracker units.  This year alone, 26 people working in the units have lost lives in blasts, while many more were injured. The latest and the fifth...

With institutional healthcare being prohibitively expensive, more women in rural India are choosing to deliver at home than in hospitals and healthcare facilities, says a new report brought out by Chittorgarh-based NGO, Prayas, in partnership with Oxfam India. The 'Study of the trends in out-of-pocket payments in healthcare during National Rural Health Mission period (2005-2010)', released on October 12 in the national capital, was conducted across five Indian states - Assam,...

A PILOT study to assess free treatment for the poor in Delhi’s Private Hospitals, conducted by Oxfam, revealed that most such hospitals are not offering the mandatory free treatment to poor.   The study, held in collaboration with a Delhi-based NGO Sama, was based on the findings of interviews with administrative and finance department officials at nine Private Hospitals, built on subsidised land obtained from the government. As per a Delhi High Court...

-The Times of India   The public health department has sought chief minister Prithviraj Chavan's intervention to introduce stringent clauses against medicos who complete their education from state-run or civic hospitals but refuse to serve the mandatory one-year rural stint.  According to an official, the government was considering not issuing medical registration certificates--which is mandatory for higher studies, pursuing job in any hospital or even for starting a dispensary of their own-to students...

There are fears that curative health care will be left to the private sector, while the public system will handle preventive and low-quality care. AN issue of The Lancet earlier this year highlighted some of the problems with public health in India, acknowledging that “it is in crisis”. The robust economic growth over the past 20 years has not translated into better health indices; indeed the decline of infant and child...