The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide. The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in government primary and upper primary schools, government aided Anganwadis, Madarsa and Maqtabs. Serving 120 million children in over 1.27 million schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres, the Midday Meal Scheme is the largest of its kind in the world.
India's population in 2021 as per World Bank is 1.39 billion. Being the world's second-most-populous country and one of its fastest-growing economies, India experiences both challenges and opportunities in context of public health. India is a hub for pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries; world-class scientists, clinical trials and hospitals yet country faces daunting public health challenges like child undernutrition, high rates of neonatal and maternal mortality, growth in noncommunicable diseases, high rates of road traffic accidents and other health related issues.
Sangam World Centre is one of the five World Centres of the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), located on the banks of the Mula River in Pune.
The healthcare delivery system of Pakistan is complex because it includes healthcare subsystems by federal governments and provincial governments competing with formal and informal private sector healthcare systems. Healthcare is delivered mainly through vertically managed disease-specific mechanisms. The different institutions that are responsible for this include: provincial and district health departments, parastatal organizations, social security institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private sector. The country's health sector is also marked by urban-rural disparities in healthcare delivery and an imbalance in the health workforce, with insufficient health managers, nurses, paramedics and skilled birth attendants in the peripheral areas. Pakistan's gross national income per capita in 2021 was $4,990 and the total expenditure on health per capita in 2021 was Rs 657.2 Billions, constituting 1.4% of the country's GDP. The health care delivery system in Pakistan consists of public and private sectors. Under the constitution, health is primarily responsibility of the provincial government, except in the federally administrated areas. Health care delivery has traditionally been jointly administered by the federal and provincial governments with districts mainly responsible for implementation. Service delivery is being organized through preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative services. The curative and rehabilitative services are being provided mainly at the secondary and tertiary care facilities. Preventive and promotive services, on the other hand, are mainly provided through various national programs; and community health workers’ interfacing with the communities through primary healthcare facilities and outreach activities. The state provides healthcare through a three-tiered healthcare delivery system and a range of public health interventions. Some government/ semi government organizations like the armed forces, Sui Gas, WAPDA, Railways, Fauji Foundation, Employees Social Security Institution and NUST provide health service to their employees and their dependents through their own system, however, these collectively cover about 10% of the population. The private health sector constitutes a diverse group of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, traditional healers, drug vendors, as well as laboratory technicians, shopkeepers and unqualified practitioners.
The Ministry of Tribal Affairs, a branch of Government of India, looks after the affairs of the tribal communities in India by providing educational scholarships, grants to create more health infrastructure in tribal communities and direct cash transfer schemes to economically backward tribal families.
IMPACT is an international initiative which focusses on preventive and social health and promote awareness and intervention to prevent avoidable disability. Founded in 1980s by Sir John Wilson, IMPACT was formed as a part of the UN's Decade of disabled people. The UK IMPACT Foundation (UKIF), which is the central organisation to its sister projects over the world, was formally registered as a charity in 1985. The organisation's international programme was formally set up by the United Nations General Assembly supported by the British government. Although it does not receive any financial assistances from these organisations, it is jointly promoted by the World Health Organization, UNICEF and the UNDP. IMPACT currently has projects focussing on disability prevention, social health, nutritional health, child health as well as disaster relief in some of the least developed nations in Asia and Africa, including countries like Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Nepal, East Africa. The India wing of IMPACT also leads Community Health Initiatives in Rural Areas and is actively involved in initiatives to prevent infant mortality.
Abhay Bang and Rani Bang are Indian activists and community health researchers working in the Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra, India. Together, they have overseen a programme that has substantially reduced infant mortality rates, one which has been endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF and is now being rolled out across India and in parts of Africa. Abhay and Rani Bang also founded the non-profit Society For Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH), which is involved in rural health service and research.
Community-based monitoring (CBM) is a form of public oversight, ideally driven by local information needs and community values, to increase the accountability and quality of social services such as health, development aid, or to contribute to the management of natural resources. Within the CBM framework, members of a community affected by a social program or environmental change track this change and its local impacts, and generate demands, suggestions, critiques and data that they then act on, including by feeding back to the organization implementing the program or managing the environmental change. For a Toolkit on Community-Based Monitoring methodology with a focus on community oversight of infrastructure projects, see www.communitymonitoring.org. For a library of resources relating to community-based monitoring of tropical forests, see forestcompass.org/how/resources.
The Naz Foundation (India) Trust is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) in that country that works on HIV/AIDS and sexual health. It is based in the Indian capital of New Delhi.
The Comprehensive Rural Health Project (CRHP) is a Non Profit, Non-Governmental Organisation located in the Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra State in India. The organization works with rural communities to provide community-based primary healthcare and improve the general standard of living through a variety of community-led development programs, including Women's Self-Help Groups, Farmers' Clubs, Adolescent Programs, and Sanitation and Watershed Development Programs. CRHP was founded in 1970 by Dr.Raj and Dr.Mabelle Arole, who conceived the Organisation's model while on a Fulbright Scholarship in Maharashtra. The work of CRHP has been recognized by the Government of Maharashtra and UNICEF, as well as being introduced to 178 countries across the world. The purpose of CRHP is to help provide healthcare to the poor.
Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) is a government program in India which provides nutritional meals, preschool education, primary healthcare, immunization, health check-up and referral services to children under 6 years of age and their mothers. The scheme was launched in 1975, discontinued in 1978 by the government of Morarji Desai, and then relaunched by the Tenth Five Year Plan.
The National Health Mission (NHM) was launched by the government of India in 2005 subsuming the National Rural Health Mission and National Urban Health Mission. It was further extended in March 2018, to continue until March 2020. It is headed by Mission Director and monitored by National Level Monitors appointed by the Government of India.Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and the recently launched National Urban Health Mission (NUHM). Main program components include Health System Strengthening (RMNCH+A) in rural and urban areas- Reproductive-Maternal- Neonatal-Child and Adolescent Health, and Communicable and Non-Communicable Diseases. NHM envisages achievement of universal access to equitable, affordable and quality health care services that are accountable and responsive to the needs of the people.
The public healthcare system in India evolved due to a number of influences since 1947, including British influence from the colonial period. The need for an efficient and effective public health system in India is large. Public health system across nations is a conglomeration of all organized activities that prevent disease, prolong life and promote health and efficiency of its people. Indian healthcare system has been historically dominated by provisioning of medical care and neglected public health. 11.9% of all maternal deaths and 18% of all infant mortality in the world occurs in India, ranking it the highest in the world. 36.6 out of 1000 children are dead by the time they reach the age of 5. 62% of children are immunized. Communicable disease is the cause of death for 53% of all deaths in India.
Founded in 1999, Alliance India is a non-governmental organisation operating in partnership with civil society, government and communities to support sustained responses to HIV in India that protect rights and improve health. Complementing the Indian national programme, we build capacity, provide technical support and advocate to strengthen the delivery of effective, innovative, community-based HIV programmes to vulnerable populations: sex workers, men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender people, hijras, people who inject drugs (PWID), and people living with HIV.
Rajnikant Shankarrao Arole was born in Supa in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, India on 10 July 1934, the second child of Shankar and Leelawati Salve Arole. His parents were both schoolteachers and his father became Inspector of Schools. The Aroles raised their three sons and four daughters in the faith of the Church of England, inculcating in them Christian ethical and spiritual values that have guided Rajnikant through a lifetime of public service.
Under Article 15(3), the Constitution of India allows for positive discrimination in favor of women. The article, under right to equality, states that: "Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making any special provision for women and children." In addition, the Directive Principles of State Policy 39(A) states that: "The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing that the citizens, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood."
The Banyan is a non-governmental organization based in Chennai, India was founded in 1993 by Vandana Gopikumar and Vaishnavi Jayakumar to cater to the mentally ill and homeless women in the city.
Auxiliary nurse midwife or nurse hybrids commonly known as ANM, is a village-level female health worker in India who is known as the first contact person between the community and the health services. ANMs are regarded as the grass-roots workers in the health organisation pyramid. Their services are considered important to provide safe and effective care to village communities. The role may help communities achieve the targets of national health programmes.
Sex education in India to the organised delivery by Indian governments and non-profits of material regarding sex, sexuality, and pregnancy. The three categories of sex education in India are (1) the sex education courses targeted at adolescents in school, (2) family planning for adults, and (3) HIV/AIDS Prevention Education. This article outlines the current state of, efficacy of, and opposition to these types of sex education in India. For history regarding family planning in India, see Family Planning in India.
Dr. Vikas Mahatme is Padmashri Awarded Indian ophthalmologist, social entrepreneur, visionary and a former member of the Parliament in Rajya Sabha. Born in Amravati, he comes from Nagpur in the state of Maharashtra. He is well known across Maharashtra for his charitable and social works. He founded a charitable trust – S. Mahatme Eye Welfare Charitable Trust that runs Mahatme Eye Bank eye hospital in Nagpur as well as branches in Mumbai, Amravati, Gadchiroli and Pune. He received the Padma Shri for his charitable community work as an ophthalmologist. In June 2016, Mahatme was the Bharatiya Janata Party's candidate for the Rajya Sabha biennial elections, which he won unopposed. His candidature was strongly backed by Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Union Minister Nitin Gadkari. He belongs to the Dhangar community. He has expressed support for implementing Scheduled Tribe reservation for Dhangar community in Maharashtra and is its first community member to get elected to parliament. He is currently a member of the Indian Nursing Council.
