On visual impairment, India has performed well against World Health Organization (WHO) benchmarks in reducing its number of cases. In India, more than sixty million people experience some form of visual impairment and the country is home to twenty percent of the world’s blind population. However, significant progress has been made in recent years. Since […]
diabetes
Diabetes: An Indian epidemic
Diabetes continues to be a disease of epidemic proportions in India, as new government figures remind us. The overall prevalence of diabetes in the country is 11.8 percent, with men and women almost equally affected. Twelve percent of men are diabetic, compared to 11.7 percent of women. The findings come from the National Diabetes and […]
India’s growing crisis of obesity
India is battling a full-blown crisis of obesity, one which is anticipated only to worsen in the years to come. More than 135 million Indians are affected by obesity, according to a study published earlier this year. Meanwhile, research indicates that the condition no longer strictly discriminates along class lines. “We found evidence suggesting it […]
CNNS: Malnutrition’s continued burden in India
Malnutrition continues to be a significant public health and development burden in India, impacting the health of the nation’s children in manifold ways – as the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (CNNS) reminds us. Recent Union Health Ministry data, based on the findings of the CNNS which was conducted between 2014 and 2018, found high prevalences […]
HWCs: Almost 21,000 built under Ayushman Bharat
![A primary health centre in Thuravoor, Kerala. Strengthening India's primary healthcare infrastructure through HWCS is a core of Ayushman Bharat. (Image credit: Ranjithsiji [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons)](https://i1.wp.com/www.healthissuesindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/800px-Thuravoor_Primary_Health_Center_Main_Building.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 "Healthcare equipment: The greatest disparity?")
More than 20,000 health and wellness centres (HWCs) are operational across India. HWCs mark a major commitment by the Centre to strengthening primary healthcare infrastructure in the country, coming as part of its flagship health insurance initiative, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) or Ayushman Bharat. In the previous year, 20,942 HWCs have become […]
Congress hits out at AYUSH Ministry
A major part of the Government’s healthcare agenda has been the promotion of alternative medicines. To this end, the BJP government established a cabinet ministry in 2014 to promote traditional and alternative medicine systems like ayurveda, yoga, naturopathy, unani, siddha, and homoeopathy named the AYUSH ministry). Under the previous Congress government, AYUSH was a small […]
Air pollution is India’s apocalypse that won’t go away
More than two years ago, Greenpeace warned that India was facing an “apocalypse” because of air pollution. This week, we are given yet another warning about the public health catastrophe brewing in the air and festering in Indians’ lungs. This is thanks to the 2019 State of Global Air Report. In 2017, India lost 1.2 million […]
Why your desk job is a risk to your health
A new study has established a relationship between body mass index (BMI) and the kind of sector of work among urban Indians. The research, published in the journal Economics and Human Biology, suggests a positive correlation between a high BMI – an indicator of obesity – and labour market activity. Put simply, the study could […]
World TB Day: Will India show leadership in the fight against TB?
“It was something that I had never expected, I was really shocked,” Nandita Venkatesan said as she recalled finding out she had become re-infected with tuberculosis (TB) in 2013. It was six years after she was first diagnosed with the disease in 2007, some months before her eighteenth birthday. In a candid conversation profiled in […]
India’s children suffer due to air pollution
India’s children are at severe risk of health issues due to air pollution. Around 93 percent of children globally are regularly exposed to air pollution levels considered dangerous to their health. This is according to a report published by the World Health Organization (WHO). Such data suggests the dire prospect that the overwhelming majority of children […]