The COVID-19 pandemic is often thought of as an urban phenomenon. This is not the case. Reports indicate that hotspots of the disease, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), or the coronavirus, are springing up in India’s rural communities. This is a concerning trend – especially considering that healthcare infrastructure in rural […]
rural health
India’s pollution crisis: 2 million lives a year
Air pollution continues to claim millions of lives every year with India leading the world in this regard. More than two million lives are lost to breathing toxic air in the country every year, in a grim reminder that India’s pollution crisis is among the leading threats to its environment and to public health. The […]
Kerala doctors to work on boosting access to health in rural areas
The Kerala chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) is working to expand access to healthcare in rural areas of the state. Around sixty percent of doctors in India work in urban areas, despite seventy percent of the population living in rural areas. Although Kerala is one of the most highly-ranked states on health parameters […]
India’s life expectancy among lowest in South-East Asia
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has released its latest Global Competitiveness Index analysing statistics such as life expectancy — and the results do not reflect well on India. The index analyses a number of metrics, from health data to economic performance. In many of these categories, India is not only being outperformed by its neighbours, […]
Adityanath announces rural health boon
In a move to improve access to healthcare in rural areas, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has announced that government medical college graduates in Uttar Pradesh will be required to work for two years in villages. Speaking at an event to commemorate the one-year anniversary of Ayushman Bharat, the Chief Minister said that the village work requirement […]
India’s shortage of specialist doctors is still staggering
July 1st marked Doctors’ Day – and while the occasion was an opportunity to thank the medical professionals who work to ensure good health, it also was a bitter reminder of the public health crisis India is facing. The government has put a figure to the mammoth medical staff shortage India is battling. The new […]
World Environment Day highlights a health crisis
World Environment Day is observed annually on June 5th to commemorate the importance of conserving our environment from the many threats it faces. For India, World Environment Day offers a valuable opportunity to recognise one of the major issues confronting the nation: its poor environmental health, ranked as the worst in the world in the […]
Villagers boycott election over pollution
Amidst India going to the polls to determine the composition of the 17th Lok Sabha, by-elections took place in Tamil Nadu to fill eighteen constituencies in the state’s Legislative Assembly. And in one village, residents are refusing to participate. The reason? Pollution. A polling booth established in the village of Nagaraja Kandigai has not seen […]
How air pollution ruins child health
Poisonous air is causing toxic damage to people across the world. Nine out of ten of us breathe polluted air. Now for the first time, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report has highlighted its damaging impact on child health and survival. Over 93 percent of the world’s 1.8 billion children are exposed to toxic air […]
Start up identifies key factors in maternal mortality
For many women in rural India, both postnatal and antenatal care are all but non-existent. Healthcare facilities are often out of reach. This alone is a significant contributing factor to both maternal and neonatal deaths in India, which is among the highest in the world. Could the minds of India’s start-ups begin to alleviate the […]