You might be called an exceptionally lucky Indian if you have access to a truly trustworthy doctor. Bordering on a national cliché, it is widely felt that government healthcare services in India are inadequate in serving the needs of the nation. On the flip side, it is also true that the system is not satisfactory from the perspective of most health-care providers either. Every stakeholder—users, providers and managers—struggle to bandage the structural fault-lines in the system. But, all is not lost. A few motivated individuals and organizations across the country are working on making a change. Syeda Saiyidain Hameed, a social rights activist, educationist, and a former member of the Planning Commission of India, champions a few civil society initiatives that are working to deliver health care to India’s impoverished.
AS A MEMBER OF THE Planning Commission (2004 to 2014), my biggest challenge was to find solutions for the crucial sector with which I was entrusted, namely, health. Despite the thousands of crores spent on health over several five-year plans, the fact remains that the vast majority of our people continue to suffer; recurring illnesses take away whatever meagre little they own. If they don’t die from disease, they die from the anxiety and penury that it causes.
But there were glimmers of hope in hopelessness. Has anyone heard of Gadchiroli, Akha, Sittilingi, Phek or Ehsaas in the metro cities where policies are made and formulated as government schemes? Was health reaching these hinterlands where no government scheme could reach?
Denne historien er fra July 2023-utgaven av Reader's Digest India.
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Denne historien er fra July 2023-utgaven av Reader's Digest India.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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ME & MY SHELF
Siddharth Kapila is a lawyer turned writer whose writing has focussed on issues surrounding Hinduism. His debut book, Tripping Down the Ganga: A Son's Exploration of Faith (Speaking Tiger) traces his seven-year-long journey along India's holiest river and his explorations into the nature of faith among believers and skeptics alike.
EMBEDDED FROM NPR
For all its flaws and shortcomings, some of which have come under the spotlight in recent years, NPR makes some of the best hardcore journalistic podcasts ever.
ANURAG MINUS VERMA PODCAST
Interview podcasts live and die not just on the strengths of the interviewer but also the range of participating guests.
WE'RE NOT KIDDING WITH MEHDI & FRIENDS
Since his exit from MSNBC, star anchor and journalist Mehdi Hasan has gone on to found Zeteo, an all-new media startup focussing on both news and analysis.
Ananda: An Exploration of Cannabis in India by Karan Madhok (Aleph)
Karan Madhok's Ananda is a lively, three-dimensional exploration of India's past and present relationship with cannabis.
I'll Have it Here: Poems by Jeet Thayil, (Fourth Estate)
For over three decades now, Jeet Thayil has been one of India's pre-eminent Englishlanguage poets.
Orbital by Samantha Harvey (Penguin Random House India)
Samantha Harvey became the latest winner of the Booker Prize last month for Orbital, a short, sharp shock of a novel about a group of astronauts aboard the International Space Station for a long-term mission.
She Defied All the Odds
When doctors told the McCoombes that spina bifida would severely limit their daughter's life, they refused to listen. So did the little girl
DO YOU DARE?
Two Danish businesswomen want us to start eating insects. It's good for the environment, but can consumers get over the yuck factor?
Searching for Santa Claus
Santa lives at the North Pole, right? Don't say that to the people of Rovaniemi in northern Finland
