Norway- World’s best place to be a mom, but where does
India stand?
When we are all gung-ho
about celebrating Mother’s Day on May 8, a striking reality about the
plight of mothers across the world has come to the fore. The Save the
children’s 16th Annual State of the World’s Mothers report tilted ‘The
Urban Disadvantage’ sheds light on the often neglected plight of the urban
poor. The report focuses on the rapidly urbanising world and the poorest
mothers and children who have to struggle every day for basic necessities
despite urbanisation and the country’s progress.
The report projects Norway as the world’s best
place to be a mother followed by Finland. The report analyses the indices
of of 179 countries by using the data from UN agencies to show where
mothers and children fare best and where they face great hardships. Iceland
ranks third on the report and is followed by Denmark.
The disturbing aspect of this report is the part India doesn’t even rank among
the top 100 countries in the world to be a mother. Among the 179
countries analysed, India ranks 140th. Despite the many flagship programs to
promote maternal health, India seems to have made very little progress when it
comes to improving the condition of women in the country. Previously the
13th annual report had deemed India as the fourth worst in maternal
care among 80 less developed countries. However, little has changed since then.
The report that is released year as a prelude to
mothers day assess a mother’s well being under five indices such as
maternal well being, children’s health, educational status, economic status and
political status. According to the report, lifetime risk of maternal death in
India is 1 in every 190 mothers. The children’s well being is assessed as the
under-5 mortality rate and is 52.7 per 1000 live births. The educational
status of women is assessed as the expected number of years of formal schooling
and is 11.1 years in India. The economic status was assessed on the basis of
gross national income per capita in US $ and is 1570 in India. The political
status of women in a country depended on the percentage of seats held by women
in the national government and it is 12.2% in India.
Source: www.thehealthsite.com
06.05.2015
35% of Indian children suffer from poor lung health!
Around 35 percent of school
going children in India suffer from poor lung health with pollution being one
of the major factors in determining lung health in children, a survey revealed
on Monday.
The nationwide survey, based on a preliminary lung
health screening test (LHST), was carried out on 2000 children aged nine to 15
years as part of the ‘Breathe Blue 2015′ campaign.
‘Around 35 percent school going children in India
suffer from poor lung health confirming the worst fears due to rising air
pollution and deteriorating air quality,’ Manjari Chandra, representative of
the foundation, said here while presenting the findings.
She said children in the national capital are the
worst affected with a total of 40 percent in the ‘poor’ and ‘bad’ zone in the
test.
Bengaluru children came next at 36 percent, while
Kolkata ranked third at 35 percent and Mumbai lowest at 27 percent.
Parthasarthi Bhattacharya, director of the
Institute of Pulmocare and Research, said preliminary results point to the bad
situation in India for children’s lung health. Read about whether some forms of Vitamin E can give you lung disease.
Citing reports, he said lung capacity of Indians is
30 percent lower than that of Westerners.
According to Anirban Maitra, a consultant pediatric
pulmonologist, kids suffer more from lung disease in polluted areas.
‘Air quality and pollution are not the only factors
contributing to lung diseases in children. We need more data to figure out how
much is the damage due to pollution,’ he said.
Source: www.thehealthsite.com
06.05.2015
Judge nothing, you will be happy. Forgive everything, you will be
happier. Love everything, you will be happiest
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