Recent data on health indicators suggest that while health care in Goa remains far ahead of the national average, there are many cracks in the system. Indeed, on many counts the state appears to be losing the ground gained earlier, even as new challenges loom. Rupa Chinai reports.

India is notorious for its abysmal health services leading to very high infant and maternal mortality rates. Ila Pathak provides a glimpse of how much effort it takes to get official health functionaries to perform their assigned duties with a minimal degree of seriousness.

India's progress on ensuring water and sanitation for all its citizens is painfully slow; indeed, the country now lags neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh on this front, and a long road still remains to be travelled. Darryl D'Monte reports on a recent meet to discuss the challenges.

38 babies died in one hospital in Thiruvananthapuram over the past four months, shocking a state which boasts of the lowest infant mortality rate in the country. The much discussed and extolled Kerala model of health development is ailing, reports P N Venugopal.

The short answer appears to be no. Some 4,959 villages have bagged the Nirmal Gram Puraskar (clean village prize) so far, for having flush toilets in every household and school. But there is a flip side of this otherwise incredible script. Sudhirendar Sharma probes the reality.

In July, 18 Nobel laureates met with over 500 young scientists from around the world in Germany. India sent 22 researchers. The meeting threw up many questions pertaining to the practice of scientific research in India. Varupi Jain has more.

Why would the Government of India deny a job to an individual who carries a mutation in the DNA? There is prejudice in the Indian society against individual perceived as "sexual anomalies". Vaijayanti Gupta initiates an educational discussion on the biology of sex and sexual orientations.

Debates on HIV estimates often take time away from the real issues - those that can only be shared by people infected and affected by the infection. The issue that is truly critical and demands everyone's attention is that of the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS, writes Syed Mohammad Afsar, on World AIDS Day.

The expression 'women at risk' can no longer be used to describe only those engaged in sex work, and that strategies to address women's vulnerability to HIV must therefore take into account their varied risks, writes Sumita Thapar.

From drum beating at markets to using helicopters, Tripura has been making rapid strides in its immunisation programme, pushing this important health care intervention among tribal as well as non-tribal mothers and children. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports.

The Indian Epilepsy Association has been working to ensure revisions in various laws to reflect advances in the management of epilepsy, and also our improved knowledge of its risks. Varupi Jain reports on the progress made so far in protecting the rights of epilepsy patients.

Within in the next two years, around 10 lakh people will die because of smoking in India alone, says one of the most comprehensive studies on the habit in the country. India is on the threshold of a tobacco-unleashed epidemic, says Ramesh Menon.

Quite a few debates are currently raging in the disability rights movement. Special schools or inclusive education, community based rehabilitation or institutionalised rehabilitation, job reservations or none - Prasanna Kumar Pincha discusses these and other questions.

The Directly Observed Treatment strategy to combat tuberculosis was introduced to ensure that every TB patient completes the full six-month course of treatment. But most poor patients find that its benefits are out of their reach, both economically and physically. Neha Singh reports.

The heavy rains of the south-west monsoon are a few weeks away and malaria usually follows, in Assam. The state has 20 per cent of malaria deaths in India, but this time, doctors say they have taken substantive measures. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports.

The Aravind Eye Hospitals in south India have contributed signficantly to preventing debilitating blindness. Aravind was recently awarded the $1 million Gates Award. It all began with late Dr Govindappa Venkataswamy's dream. Ramesh Menon tracks down the pioneer.

Statistics are staggeringly in favour of breastfeeding, and surprising as it may be, breastfeeding rates in India are dismal. Krithika Ramalingam digs deeper into the factors at play.

Nearly 20 per cent of the world's blind are in India. Only donation of eyes after death can bring light into the lives of the needy. Ramesh Menon surveys the landscape of eye donations and finds much that still needs to be done.

A new anthology AIDS Sutra has 16 renowned literary figures writing about the AIDS epidemic in India and how different communities across the country are grappling with it. Sumita Thapar has more.

The villages of Khanpur Kholiya, Masana and Sawla in Haryana have received the central government's Nirmal Gram Puruskar for ensuring that no one, not even a child, defecates in the open. Darryl D'Monte reports.

A clear focus on protecting the interests of non-smokers has led to worldwide efforts to ban smoking in all public places, and strongly curtail any exceptions. India too has joined this trend, writes Ramesh Menon.

The U.S. auto giants are an example of how things work in the age of unbridled corporate power. Of how the collapse of restraint on that power fractures economy and society, writes P Sainath.

No other village is more eco-friendly than this one in Andhra Pradesh. From 100-per cent toilet coverage to rain water harvesting; from soak pits in every house to clean streets. Usha Turaga-Revelli reports.

They are two simple, rural women, living in rural Andhra Pradesh, in an area known for its arid soils, its resultant lack of food and its poverty. And unbelievable as it may seem, the answer to the healthy skins of Chandramma and Narsamma lies in good nutrition. Keya Acharya has more.

Animal farming practices that pay little heed to the welfare of domestic animals invariably lead to public health threats for humans. Swine flu is simply the most recent reminder of this, writes Darryl D'Monte.

Krithika Ramalingam

Tamilnadu leads the country in nutritional interventions and yet has alarming levels of hunger in children. Research indicates that is a very likely cause of poor schooling achievement and drop-out rates, reports Krithika Ramalingam.

NGOs have fared better than the government in tackling iron deficiency in poor children. Activists, policy analysts and funders want a convergence of various departments as opposed to boxing nutrition into the health-sector alone. Krithika Ramalingam completes her two-part inquiry.

Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal would do well to assess the learnings from two recent and major HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, before "looking into the ban on sex education", if he really wants to make change, writes Charumathi Supraja.

While those with mental disorders are at increased danger for being infected with HIV, the onset of the virus itself gives rise to a number of mental illnesses. Puja Awasthi reports.

Why is it that swine flu makes major national headlines in India while encephalitis, which has claimed many more lives this year (not to mention malaria, tuberculosis, gastro-enteritis, etc.), does not? Could it be that the A(H1N1) virus is more glamorous? Ammu Joseph analyses the scoops.

India has ratified the UN Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, but done very little to protect the rights of the disabled in accordance with it. Freny Manecksha reports.

Mental illness is an isolating experience which shuts off those affected from experiencing the fun and laughter of everyday life. Kolkata Sanved is working to change that, writes Shoma Chatterji.

Kerala's palliative care movement shows health services can go well beyond the biomedical model of health and be seen as an affirmative act of living with dignity. Freny Manecksha reports.

Mental illness is an isolating experience which shuts off those affected from experiencing the fun and laughter of everyday life. Kolkata Sanved is working to change that, writes Shoma Chatterji.

The main culprit for the low standards of medical education and the credibility of the regulator is government policy itself, which has consistently placed a low priority on healthcare, notes Kannan Kasturi.

A pilot project in community-based monitoring under the National Rural Health Mission in three districts of Jharkhand provides encouraging results. Freny Manecksha reports.

A number of development organisations are working to diagnose deafblindess in children, and provide learning tools and techniques that can mainstream them. Freny Manecksha reports.

The Badaun district administration in UP is on a war-footing to convert all dry toilets and rehabilitate manual scavengers before the end of the year. Over the last few months 1600 scavengers have been rehabilitated. Sumita Thapar reports.

A family planning programme in Assam uses texts from the Holy Quran, encouraging husbands to accept sterilisation to promote the health and well-bring of their family. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports.

Amidst a rising tide of reports of medical negligence in the media, the courts have stepped in to interpret laws in favour of patients, and to award large punitive damages. Shoma Chatterji reports.

The child sex ratio continues to follow the worsening trend established over four decades ago. Demographers predict that India's population will remain overly masculine for decades. Kannan Kasturi reports.

The failure in India is the major reason why the UN cannot meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving the 2.6 billion in the world without sanitation by 2015. South Asian countries resolve to try harder. Darryl D'Monte reports.

Women in Kashmir do not physically encounter violence as much as men do, but their feelings of helplessness and subsequent guilt resulting from the violence around them is taking a toll. Freny Manecksha reports.

For decades, antibiotics have been used carelessly in India, with doctors, pharmacists, patients and drug companies all contributing to their abuse. The results could be catastrophic. Ramesh Menon reports.

Click here to read Part II

The Hathkhola Medical Bank touches thousands of lives each year, quietly and determinedly led by Ashish Das's self-belief. Ruchi Choudhary reports.

Superbugs will alter the course of medical history. India needs to put in place proper systems that will ensure that drug resistance does not set in. Ramesh Menon reports.

Click here to read Part I

HIV-positive children in Assam and their families need more than the usual measures of state support for their economic, medical and social needs. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports.

The Government's response to the emergence of Superbugs should be urgent and specific, but instead it has been living in denial even as the threat multiplies, writes Ramesh Menon.

Click here to read Part I | Part II

It is frightening to think of how the new drug resistant strain of tuberculosis is going to spread in crowded, unhygienic, urban India. Doctors are worried. Ramesh Menon reports.