Health issues in India
The fight over the government’s controversial ‘Oxytocin ban’ has escalated even further and will now be fought in the Supreme Court. . The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has joined the fight against the Centre’s efforts to have Oxytocin’s production and sale severely curtailed by moving the apex court. The new policy has been proposed since […]
A disease which kills almost 300,000 women a year – including 67,500 women in India – could be all but eliminated by the end of the century if efforts are made to increase access to a lifesaving vaccine according to recent research published in The Lancet. The disease is cervical cancer. The vaccine is against […]
“I found myself fighting violence against women An Unnamed violence, a deliberate violence” Dr Denis Mukwege A gynecologist surgeon from Bukavu in Congo, Dr Denis Mukwege, has won the Nobel Peace Prize for leading a heroic fight to save lives of sexual assault victims. Dr Mukwege has devoted his life to healing the wounds of […]
The Centre’s ban on hormone drug Oxytocin was supposed to come into force today, but has been stayed till October by the Delhi High Court (DHC). The news will surely come as a relief to activists, doctors and drugmakers opposing the Centre’s decision to tighten restrictions on the drug’s production and sale in India. Many […]
The Centre has revoked its decision to ban retail sale of Oxytocin, a life saving drug for pregnant women in India after petitioners moved court. But tight restrictions remain in place. Oxytocin is a hormone drug used in the treatment of postpartum haemorrhage (PPH), the predominant cause of maternal mortality in India. Its misuse in […]
India is failing to be a breastfeeding nation – potentially putting the lives of its newborns at risk. Just 41.5 percent of newborns in India are breastfed within an hour of being born. This is according to new data released by UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO), ahead of World Breastfeeding Awareness Week this year. On […]
In a boon for India’s women and girls, the Centre has made feminine hygiene products tax-free. The decision was announced more than a year after the Goods and Services Tax (GST) imposed a twelve percent duty on menstrual pads. The levy sparked controversy, as items such as bindi, bangles and sindoor were classed as “essential” […]
Gender discrimination and missing women The price of gender discrimination in India is the lives of almost 240,000 girls under five every year. Much attention is given in India to the issue of female foeticide. Sex-selective abortions are considered the major driver of India’s skewed sex ratio at birth (SRB) and its resultant 63 million […]
The gender gap is widening in India. It ranks 108 of 144 countries on the 2017 World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Gender Gap Report – dropping 21 places from last year, which saw India ranked 87th. Failing to break the top 100 The WEF measures countries across four indicators: educational attainment, economic participation and opportunity, […]
On November 8, 2014, 140 women underwent surgery in two state-run sterilisation camps in Chhattisgarh. Five days later, thirteen of them had died. The tragedy grabbed global headlines. Three years later, it remains an open wound in India. At the time, it seemed as if there was one, easy-to-identify cause that could be addressed through […]
![By Lance Cpl. Chloe Nelson [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://i2.wp.com/www.healthissuesindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Southern_Partnership_Station_14_140923-M-UY788-056.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 "Chhattisgarh sterilisation camp deaths: Three years on")