Category: Public health

Contract workers, Delhi/ NCR, Public health, Right to Food

Hunger and deep distress in Delhi in lockdown

anumehay

In the first month of lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the Delhi government enhanced food rations and distributed cooked food in night shelters and schools. But it wasn’t nearly enough. Full report here. Continue reading Hunger and deep distress in Delhi in lockdown

Caste, Jharkhand, Labour, Public health, Right to Food

Radha Devi: Managing maladies in Bhuiantola

anumehay

A path winding through paddy fields led to Bhuiantola, a hamlet where Bhuian Dalit families lived, on the outskirts of Tarwadih village in Jharkhand’s Latehar district. That month, eight individuals in Tarwadih were on treatment for tuberculosis(TB), a serious bacterial infection that most commonly affects the lungs. Four of them lived in Bhuiantola. The previous night, Radha Devi, the village sahiya or frontline health worker, an Accredited Social Health Activist(ASHA) had finished helping a woman delivery a baby in the hamlet. Now, walking down the paved path, she called out to Ramavtar Ram who was working in the fields. “Nine … Continue reading Radha Devi: Managing maladies in Bhuiantola

Adivasis, Caste, Ecology,, Health, Labour, Public health, Rajasthan

Reporting series on tuberculosis among workers

anumehay

India has an enormous tuberculosis crisis, but the government still does not have an accurate estimate even of how many Indians suffer from the disease. A million cases are still not notified every year, and people remain undiagnosed, or inadequately diagnosed and struggle for accessing full treatment. While TB can be cured by a drug regimen of six months, the emergence and increase in antibiotics resistant TB is a concern. These stories trace the effects of economic and health policies in on workers with TB and their experiences with drug resistant TB: Stone-crushing workers in Ajmer suffer as the government’s … Continue reading Reporting series on tuberculosis among workers

Contract workers, Labour, Public health, Rajasthan

A miner recounts

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Every year, the mines slows down and stops at the onset of monsoon, and then resume after harvest. Right now, the stone pits are still full of green water from the rains.The work is on pause for everyone to return from home after Diwali. Many young men, a few women whose homes are nearby, who did not leave, sit around tea shops, and in the common spaces waiting. When they speak, they are not in the mood of a break or rest, as they wait for the full mine operation to start in another fifteen days. Over and over, they … Continue reading A miner recounts

Legal justice, Public health, Women

Santhali women caught between birth and death

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In Santhali villages in Godda, along Jharkhand’s border with Bihar, many slanting stone megaliths that mark the community graves are those of young women who died in childbirth in recent years. Tribal families in the hamlets scattered in Sundarpahari and Poreyhat – many of whom speak only Santahli – recount desperate struggles for medical help when young women in their families in advanced stages of pregnancy experienced complications. At Paharpur village in Sundarpahari, Gopin Soren spoke haltingly as rain fell over the hut where his 19-year old daughter Sadbeeti, pregnant for the first time, died last year. “On Thursday we … Continue reading Santhali women caught between birth and death

Jharkhand, Public health, Right to Food, Women

When public health schemes turn anaemic

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Since 2010 when the central government discontinued the supply of medical kits containing Iron Folic Acid, vitamin A, zinc tablets and Oral Rehydration Solution packets under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) to states, village anganwadis and health centers have turned anaemic pregnant women and adoloscent girls away. These are essential for reducing anaemia and birth defects which affect 69.5 percent women and girls between 15 and 49 and over 70 percent of all children below five in Jharkhand – the highest levels of anaemia according to National Family Health Survey 2 and 3 done in 1999 and 2006. Over six … Continue reading When public health schemes turn anaemic

Adivasis, Jharkhand, Maoist conflict, Public health

In Jharkhand, entire hamlets wait for ration cards

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Bhojan Adhikaar Yatra, a campaign demanding a comprehensive food security Bill, reached Jamshedpur on Tuesday after traveling through Bihar, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. In 2009, the Jharkhand Government reduced the price of rice to Re.1/kg and entitled families with Antyodaya cards to get rice for free. But the distribution of Below Poverty Line (BPL) cards continues to be based on a survey by the Bihar Government 15 years ago, and many poor families are still excluded from PDS. The Government did a fresh survey last year, but the date for issuing fresh ration cards based on this survey had been … Continue reading In Jharkhand, entire hamlets wait for ration cards

Adivasis, Chhattisgarh, Particularly Vulnerable Tribes (PTG), Public health, Women

Sterile ban

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Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs) living in Chattisgarh, India, struggle to provide for their families and are forced to lie about their identity to overcome the sterilisation restriction owing to a three decade old order of the Madhya Pradesh government that restricted PTGs from being targeted during the sterilisation drives of the time. Sarguja: A three decade-old Madhya Pradesh government order has several adivasi families in Chattisgarh in a quandary. They struggle to provide for themselves but are turned away by government officials if they try to restrict their family size. “I do not want more children but the ‘mitanin’ (village … Continue reading Sterile ban