Thatched House

http://morungexpress.com/tobacco-lobby-cancer-cow-urine/ First, a BJP MP in the parliamentary committee looking into rules regarding tobacco sales said that there is no Indian study linking tobacco to cancer. This was followed by another member saying that a lot of chain smokers do not develop cancer. Another BJP MP, again a member of the committee remarked that there is no fool proof evidence that smoking causes cancer. The context is that the government had planned to increase the size of pictorial warnings on tobacco products from 40% to 85% by April 1 this year. Increase in pictorial warnings is shown to bring down tobacco prevalence. But because the committee brought out these statements, the deadline is crossed without any action being taken. What is going on here? There is no dearth of global and local evidences that tobacco causes cancer. The Indian government’s own study showed that there is a very strong link. But why are these parliamentarians making thes...

http://morungexpress.com/change-of-focus-in-health/ The present healthcare system is RCH-centric. RCH stands for Reproductive and Child Health. In National Health Mission, RCH takes the centre stage and all the other national health programs follow far behind. Is it justifiable that RCH is given priority over other health concerns? The answer is both Yes and No. RCH covers a very crucial component in the health needs of a population. Women during childbirth and children are vulnerable to adverse health conditions. The quality of health services is measured by how far the benefits are reaching this group of people. Infant mortality rate is an indicator of the overall human development of a population. Healthy mother means healthy child and healthy child means healthy population. So, it is right that RCH should be focused. But ideally health services should be free of targets. It should be comprehensive and universal. It is the limitedness of our resources which c...