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Clinical trials in India have for long been inviting controversy due to lack of transparency and regulatory mechanism. While replying to a question in Rajya Sabha in March 2013, the then Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said 438 deaths took place during clinical trials in 2011 while 668 people died during 2010. While hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Swasthya Adhikar Manch in 2012, the Supreme Court asked the Central government to come up with more stringent regulatory and monitoring set up to stop exploitation

Though dust is of trivial significance to us, it kills millions of workers in Indian industries and mines. Silicosis, one of the many lung disorders caused by dust, is not only untreatable but also the commonest and most widespread of all occupational diseases. Exposure to large amount of free silica can pass unnoticed since it is odourless, non-irritant and hence is confused with ordinary dust. The problem is more severe in unorganised industries like slate pencil cutting, stone cutting and agate industry since these are not covered by any legislation.

Thanks to our fast still sedentary lifestyle, there are more medicines than fruits in our baskets and hence a big share of monthly budget is spent on buying them. According to a study published in international journal Lancet, despite living in a welfare state, 78 per cent of the health expenditure is met by Indians from their own pockets. Also 72 per cent of this total expenditure is spent on purchasing drugs. If you think that’s high be prepared for much higher medical bills in near future. The free trade agreement (FTA)

While the number of cases has declined by 60 per cent over 2001, there are concerns that malaria is still being under reported. Other issues include the systemic resistance to drugs which were previously used to limit vector growth. Around 35 countries have been certified to be free of malaria and another 21 on their way to reach their target of zero transmission by the year 2020. In our neighbourhood, Sri Lanka and Maldives have also achieved the malaria-free status and Bhutan will be there soon.

It’s imperative to save our children against diseases, but does that justify mindless immunisation drives like the one involving pentavalent vaccine?  

In 2007, the state government of Andhra Pradesh launched an insurance scheme that was designed to protect patients from the ‘catastrophic’ impact of out of pocket expenses incurred on hospital care. Termed as the ‘Rajiv Arogyasri’ scheme, it soon became

Are you free to be healthy? Can you cut back on junk food, jog around and reduce booze and cigarettes of your own will? "Yes," you might say, "we live in a democracy and can choose how to live." You are right but only partially. In the present times, junk food pervade not just the food courts but also what's cooked in our home kitchens, most of the open spaces for walking and jogging have been turned into parking lots and it's quite easy to relapse into smoking with surrogate tobacco promotions all around us. In fact, when it comes to choosing between various options, we don't have an absolute say. The State has already got that covered.

India’s health care system is one of the most privatised in the world. Thanks to policy of the government to encourage the growth of the private sector, especially since the 1990s, the share of private sector in various components of health care in India today is very high. Due to insufficient expansion of the public health system and overall private sector friendly policies of the state, the vast majority of doctors passing out from medical colleges have joined the private sector. This trend has accelerated with production of higher proportion of postgraduate doctors since the 1970s.