India’s COVID-19 pandemic: Anatomy of a social crime
With India’s official totals of daily new COVID-19 infections and active cases falling for the better part of two weeks, the country’s far-right Narendra Modi-led government has begun boasting that the pandemic is on a “downward trend.” Some opposition-led state governments, including that of Delhi, meanwhile, have announced plans to relax their limited lockdown measures.
Yet India is by any measure in the midst of a social catastrophe. According to the official tallies, in the eight weeks since April 1, total infections have more than doubled, rising from 12.1 to 26.9 million, while deaths have increased by 89 percent to total 307,231 as of yesterday morning. Just in the past week, India has registered an additional 1.73 million COVID-19 cases and 28,512 deaths, or more than 4,000 per day.
View: Dearth of healthcare workers in rural India may be a prime reason for rising Covid fatalities there indiatimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from indiatimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
India’s amended abortion law still gives doctors, not women, the final say in terminating pregnancy
The liberalised law allows termination of pregnancy up to 24 weeks, but only for special categories of vulnerable women. Mansi Thapliyal/Reuters
The terms for abortion have been liberalised in India after an amended
law received the President’s assent on March 25. But gender and reproductive rights activists are disappointed that the law still does not recognise abortion as a woman’s choice that can be sought on-demand, as is the
practice in 73 countries.
These are the key changes that the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Act, 2021, has brought in:
Amended Abortion Law Still Gives Doctors, Not Women, The Final Say indiaspend.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from indiaspend.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
India has operationalised over 75,500 Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centres so far: Government
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Last Updated: Apr 14, 2021, 08:49 PM IST
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Drawing inspiration from BR Ambedkar on his birth anniversary, he said, These centres are close to his (Ambedkar) philosophy, which continues to inspire us in our efforts to bring human dignity, equity and social justice in the society for providing healthcare services to all.
He called for competition amongst innovative models to strengthen the movement further by learning from the best practices employed by various states and UTs.
India has operationalised 75,532 Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centres so far despite the COVID-19 pandemic and is on track to functionalise 1.5 lakh HWCs by December 2022, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Wednesday. Vardhan, who chaired an event virtually to mark the third anniversary of the rollout of Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWC), said that a