If public health systems are failing on account of certain causes, the solution should lie in fixing them. However, it appears instead that the state seems to be looking for an escape route from the problems of its own inefficiencies, says C V Madhukar.

Medical services are today driven by needs and definitions out of sync with the realities of the masses. In conversation with Pamela Philipose, health activist Imrana Qadeer argues why health should be seen through the prism of the various structural components of society - caste, class and gender.

The rape of a schizophrenic girl at NIMHANS reveals a wide gap between the rhetoric and reality of mental health care in India.

Allegedly in the midst of a major reform effort, the Uttar Pradesh healthcare system shows itself to be woefully unprepared for an outbreak of dengue. Abhijit Das reports.

What plans and promises on 'health for all' have the NDA and the Congress offered to the electorate this election cycle? Abhijit Das takes a closer look.

These National Human Rights Commission's hearings on the Right to Healthcare are bringing out hundreds of poor citizens' experiences of being refused public health care. Gone are the days when citizens endured this with a fatalism born out of years of hopelessness, writes Abhijit Das.

Rural public health care is choked nationwide for a number of reasons. To name two, provisioning of services is very top heavy and many major programmes continue to be conceived and run uncoordinatedly. But Abhijit Das finds promising prospects in the formation of the National Rural Health Mission.

The Indian experience in institutionalised mental help has not been civilising. The National Human Rights Commission had issued a condemnation of the state of mental hospitals as early as six years ago. Parul Sharma notes that misguided private counselling and the lack of richer case law have compounded victims' problems.

Despite crores of rupees having been spent in name of tribal and other development programmes in one block of Palakkad district in Kerala, the region suffers from poor access to decent health care. 80 per cent of the adivasi population here are living in abject poverty. M Suchitra reports.

India is languishing in the Human Development Index recently released by the UNDP. Bangladesh has overtaken India in some vital parameters. What does this imply in terms of actual numbers? Are the Millennium Development Goals and those laid down by the Planning Commission achievable? Pavan Nair takes a look.

The Ministry of Mines and Minerals says it may lift the ban on asbestos mining. It is ignoring the views of exposure victims, informed recommendations of public sector medical experts, and mounting evidence of an asbestos disease epidemic emerging in developed countries. The rationale to permit mining is hollow, writes Gopal Krishna.

Recently, there has been renewed stress on compulsory iodisation, with the central government attempting to bring back a national ban on non-iodised salt. But the nature and comprehensiveness of research into iodine deficiency has never made a categorical case for a ban, finds Aparna Pallavi.

While it is nobody's case that iodised salt should be pushed out of the Indian market, what concerns many people's groups is the one-sided way in which iodisation is being imposed on the people of India. Aparna Pallavi concludes a two-part series into New Delhi's interest in banning non-iodised salt.

The HIV epidemic has brought into focus multiple public health issues facing rural India today. In this respect, it presents us with an opportunity to deal with issues that have been neglected and even been actively ignored for too long, writes Supriya Kumar.

The proposed Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), likely to be instituted soon, will establish five 'world class' institutes to train 1000 public health professionals every year. But just where will these new public health experts be employed? Padma Prakash on the unaddressed issues.

The mounting cost of hospital care, increasing out-of-pocket expenditure, and its catastrophic impact on family finances demand an innovative and flexible risk-pooling mechanism to provide a security net for the poor. Merely transfering the costs to the public exchequer will land the nation in a no-win situation, writes Jayaprakash Narayan.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Simple interventions and sustained joint efforts by civil society groups and the local panchayat have resulted in significant improvements in communication and increase in health awareness in some of Rajasthan's most backward districts. Swapna Majumdar reports.

Already struggling with low budgetary allocation for healthcare and shortage of trained staff, health services in Telangana and residual Andhra Pradesh have taken a more serious hit due to issues arising out of bifurcation. Tejaswini Pagadala reports.

For the three million plus marginalised people living in Assam's riverine ‘chars’, boat clinics arrive once every month with basic health supplies, services and education. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports on this innovative healthcare delivery system.

The conduct of election of members to the Medical Council of India in 2013 and its subsequent actions over the past year have underlined the brazen corruption in the regulatory body. Developments in the health ministry raise doubts over whether these issues will be tackled at all.  A round up

In the tribal villages of Nandurbar district of Maharashtra, committed social workers are improving the health and lives of mothers and children by spreading awareness about their special needs. Dilnaz Boga brings you their stories.

The out-of-pocket health expenditure by the poor is spiraling and the government spending on public health care is reducing. The existing public health programes and insurance schemes are failing; private health care sector is not properly regulated; Shambhu Ghatak finds the health of our nation worrisome.

On World Mental Health Day, Pushpa Achanta shares the struggle of some mental illness survivors she met recently and hopes that our nation's Mental Health Program is implemented by the government earnestly.

A vocal community demanding its health rights through greater participation in local governance is the key to long term change, and this may be finally starting to happen in a few places, writes Puja Awasthi.

The recent national consultation at Mumbai on the right to healthcare included the National Human Rights Commission. The pursuit of "Health for all" is very much alive, says Abhay Shukla.

Rasika Dhavse reports on a Pune-based organisation that conducts drama therapy sessions designed to help special populations grow to their potential.

Many in Vidarbha, like millions elsewhere, have simply stopped seeking medical help for their ailments. They just cannot afford it. Some farmers have mortgaged land to pay health bills, writes P Sainath.

Rising health costs are proving disastrous for Vidarbha's farmers already under severe distress. Debt due to spiraling medical expenditures is worse than the illness itself for many, and the state government's health infrastructure is not helping, reports Jaideep Hardikar.

खाना सिर्फ टेस्टी होना ही जरूरी नहीं होता बल्कि हेल्दी होना भी जरूरी होता है. इसके लिए आपको कुछ खास बातों को ध्यान में रखना जरूरी है.

दुनियाभर में लोगों की मानसिक स्थिति को देखते हुए विश्‍व स्‍वास्‍थ्‍य संगठन (World Health Organization) के प्रमुख डॉक्‍टर टेड्रॉस एधनॉम ग्रेब्रेसस ने पूरी दुनिया को एक चैलेंज दिया है.

लॉकडाउन की बोरियत को दूर करने के लिए लोग कई तरह की रेसिपी ट्राई कर रहे हैं, जिसका एक अच्छा साइड तो है लेकिन सेहत के लिए लिहाज से रोजाना स्नैक्स खाना सही नहीं है.

ऑफिस के काम के बीच चाय इंसान के दिमाग को तरोताजा कर देती है. पहले लोग ब्लैक और दूध वाली ही चाय पीते थे, लेकिन वक्त के साथ चाय कई तरह की हो गई है.

तरबूज खाने से शरीर को कई तरह से फायदा पहुंचता है. यह न केवल हेल्दी होता है बल्कि शरीर में पानी की कमी को पूरा करता है.

असमय बाल सफेद होने की वजह (Reason of Premature White Hair): जानें समय से पहले क्यों सफ़ेद हो रहे हैं बाल...

Sports education important to make healthy India: Leander Paes

Covid-19: 3390 new cases and 1273 recoveries in last 24 hours, says Health Ministry

An Indian-American physician in Kansas City has begun a study to find if something called “remote intercessory prayer” might initiate God to heal those infected with the coronavirus.

A magisterial inquiry into the death of a 27-year-old man on April 12, who allegedly committed suicide at a quarantine centre set up at Galgotias University, has revealed negligence on the part of health workers who had initially examined him in the district hospital.

The coronavirus outbreak exposed "shortcomings" in China's public healthcare system, a top health official admitted Saturday, saying that reforms are underway to improve the country's disease prevention and control mechanisms.

Aarogya Setu, a government app developed for tracking Covid-19 patients, has become the most downloaded healthcare application and also featured among the top 10 downloaded apps in the world in April, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said on Friday. Close to nine crore users had downloaded the Aarogya Setu mobile application till May 4.

As many as 39 Covid-19 cases were reported within a week up to Wednesday from Davanagere city alone, excluding three fatalities and two recoveries.