Healthcare in India

The Government of Maharashtra had set up a committee to draft the Prevention of Cut Practice in Healthcare Services Act, 2017 to stop cut practice in the medical profession. In the last two decades, there has been rapid commercialisation of medical services which has led to cut-throat competition among doctors to attract patients for higher revenue generation. This article presents the views of doctors about different aspects of cut practice, such as its prevalence, trends and the ways to stop it.

The nutritional status of women and children in India continues to be poor. In this paper, we discuss how three major flagship social protection government programmes—the Targeted Public Distribution System, the Mid-day Meal Scheme, and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act—can be made more nutrition sensitive. We discuss three potential approaches to making these programmes deliver better nutrition outcomes. These are strengthening governance and operations so that the programmes achieve their basic goals of improving food security and poverty; integrating nutrition goals and actions for each of these programmes; and leveraging the reach and scale of these programmes to also deliver specific nutrition interventions via these programmes, especially the tpds.

Despite global efforts towards creating awareness and involving men in maternal and reproductive health of women, their participation remains low, particularly among the tribal population.

The case of the 10-year-old victim of rape who is pregnant and awaiting delivery after being denied permission to abort by the courts is an urgent indication that all stakeholders must come together and find a solution for unwanted pregnancies of more than 20 weeks.

There is a wide treatment gap in Indian mental healthcare. This article discusses the treatment gap and the contributing factors, and suggests ways to reduce it. The political (policy perspective), social (stigma, discrimination, and gender), cultural (beliefs, explanations, and help-seeking behaviours), and economic (direct and indirect costs of treatment) factors addressed have long impeded mental healthcare. A policy and research review reflects that mental illness in India contributes significantly to the global occurrence of mental illness. The treatment gap causes substantial losses to individuals, families, society, and the nation. Innovation and capacity building are necessary to develop and implement locally relevant, feasible, and effective community-based mental healthcare models.