Health

After Nirmala’s mother was hospitalised with suspected dengue, she spent Rs 25,000 over three days to learn that it was only a case of general weakness. It was no small sum for the domestic worker to cough up in three days, not to mention the physical stress and emotional trauma. Nirmala had not even heard of health insurance for workers like herself, let alone have one. And those who do know about health insurance don't necessarily have it. Parvathamma, also a domestic worker, who is about 65 years old, asks: “I need to have a cataract operation. Will you help…

Many of us have multiple health insurance policies such as a retail policy, a corporate plan and a family floater plan. And yet, we almost never consider claiming health benefits using them together for a treatment. The reason is that most people don’t know how to leverage multiple policies for a maximised claim. Yet, multiple policies can help you recover the maximum amount of treatment cost at times. But an important point to note here is that you can never claim an amount more than the treatment expenses. To benefit from multiple policies when filing a medical insurance claim, here…

Is junk food as hazardous as tobacco? The country’s regulator FSSAI seems to think so. In a draft regulation published by FSSAI dated October 30 2019, FSSAI has proposed that no person shall offer or expose for sale of pre-packaged foods which are referred to as foods high in fat, salt and sugar within 50m of a school campus, in addition to ensuring that the food served within the school campus be healthy. While this may be a timely move, when India has been ranked 2nd on child obesity, second only to China, the key lies in the implementation and…

As the city lights are dimmed and the world, as most of us know it, sleeps, Shilpa Kumari (name changed) went out for work. She stood at the corner of one of the sleepy lanes of Ashok Nagar, with layers of makeup, a cleavage-exposing blouse and a firm attitude and panache, that were clearly not affected by the remarks of passers-by. However, whenever the social workers from the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Project Cell (TANSAC) tried to talk to her, she would turn defensive, and chide them. “Who says I am a sex worker?” was the constant refrain. It took…

Chennai saw 543 registered cases of dengue till October, the highest across all districts in Tamil Nadu in this calendar year. The civic body has promised to undertake more preventive measures such as fumigation and conduct awareness drives to educate citizens on dos and don’ts, to arrest the spread of dengue. Citizens in their individual capacity can be prepared to prevent the spread of the disease by undertaking certain preemptive measures.  Here are a few key pointers from the Kanchi Kamakoti CHILDS Trust Hospital on how dengue spreads, the symptoms, course of treatment and what you can do to avoid…

The recent Bollywood release Chichore may have been dismissed as a clichéd story. But its theme – depression among school and college students – is becoming a serious issue, especially in big cities like Mumbai. India has one of the highest suicide rates in the world among youth in the 15-29 age group and depression is one key cause for this. Though media did report two recent incidents, that of a 24 year old student, from Assam studying at the School of Architecture and Planning (SPA) who committed suicide due to mental pressure and that of a 29-year-old student of…

The recent Bollywood release Chichore may have been dismissed as a clichéd story. But its theme – depression among school and college students – is becoming a serious issue, especially in big cities like Mumbai. India has one of the highest suicide rates in the world among youth in the 15-29 age group and depression is one key cause for this. Though media did report two recent incidents, that of a 24 year old student, from Assam studying at the School of Architecture and Planning (SPA) who committed suicide due to mental pressure and that of a 29-year-old student of…

‘I can’t risk passing on an infection to my baby’ ‘Giving a stranger’s milk to my baby feels weird’ ‘I will not be able to feed my baby if I donate the excess milk.’ These are a few misconceptions among new mothers that deter them from donating to human milk banks or accepting milk from them. To be fair, human milk banks are a relatively new concept in our cities.  The World Health Organisation recommends mothers worldwide to exclusively breastfeed infants for the child's first six months to achieve optimal growth, development and health.  But there are many mothers who…

As school reopens after a break, Arjun is rather upset for still being in the first bench. "Why am I so short?" he asks, "Others in the class who are younger than me are taller. They sit behind me." What Arjun does not realise, perhaps, is that he is among the many short children who, by 2022, will comprise almost 31.4% of the under-fives in the country. But why are so many kids so short? Is it just genetics? Not really. Arjun is stunted rather than short. His physical stature is a key indicator of child malnutrition, indicating that a boy…

As we observe World Menstrual Hygiene Day today, May 28th, I would like to share the contents of a somewhat private whatsapp message I got a few days ago. It said: Odette, so what exactly does sustainable menstruation mean? You may think, yes times are changing and people are beginning to open up on such subjects, not really a big deal. Well, let me add a bit more: the message was from a male. From a male I barely knew – we are on a common group, where right through this month, I have been sharing the May page of…