Bobby Ramakant
[Author is a senior development journalist, World Health Organization (WHO)'s WNTD Awardee (2008), and have been writing on health and development issues since 1991. He can be contacted at: bobbyramakant@yahoo.com]
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Articles by Bobby Ramakant
January 24, 2010
The young people are the true custodian of our future, so their voices must not be ignored. The children who live in urban slums in state capital of Uttar Pradesh gave a powerful message to grown-ups to save the environment. The outcome of rising pollution in the city and other adverse manifestations of environmental hazards, are often worst faced by those from the lower socio-economic group.
January 24, 2010
The young people are the true custodian of our future, so their voices must not be ignored. The children who live in urban slums in state capital of Uttar Pradesh gave a powerful message to grown-ups to save the environment. The outcome of rising pollution in the city and other adverse manifestations of environmental hazards, are often worst faced by those from the lower socio-economic group.
January 11, 2010
The year 2010 was declared as year of the lungs to recognize that hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer each year from treatable and preventable chronic respiratory diseases
July 10, 2009
Rohini Singh is still waiting for justice to be done after being brutally physically abused by the police constable Subhas Mishra, who entered and ransacked her home and also misbehaved with her two minor daughters, all because she was asking for protection against the harassment and domestic violence she was being subjected to by her husband.
July 08, 2009
"This tsunami didn´t arise yesterday; it evolved over time and is getting worse. We need a revolution to change the trajectory if we are serious"
May 19, 2009
The International Diabetes Federation (IDF), International Union Against Cancer (UICC) and World Heart Federation (WHF) issued a joint statement on 19 May 2009 that calls on the international community to address urgently the epidemic of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), responsible for 35 million deaths a year. The statement demands a substantial increase in funding for NCDs and greater availability of essential medicines, among other urgent responses, in a way to accelerate achievement of the health Millennium Development Goals.
May 13, 2009
Jonathan Mann awardee (2008) Dr Binayak Sen, who is a well-known paediatrician and human rights defender, will complete two years on 14 May 2009 in a Raipur prison on false charges of abetting Maoist activity in Chhattisgarh, sedition, and waging war against the State. Not only in India, but in countries around the world the pressure is mounting for the release of Dr Sen.
May 07, 2009
Late last month El Salvador became the first country to take advantage of The Union´s Asthma Drug Facility (ADF), which uses pooled procurement and other purchasing strategies to obtain greatly reduced prices from approved suppliers.
May 03, 2009
The Global Burden of Asthma Report, indicates that asthma control often falls short and there are many barriers to asthma control around the world. Proper long-term management of asthma will permit most patients to achieve good control of their disease. Yet in many regions around the world, this goal is often not met.
April 29, 2009
Activists expressed their deep anguish and concern on unabated mass killings in Sri Lanka which is, as they underlined, "no short of a humanitarian disaster in northern Sri Lanka".
April 24, 2009
In the least developed countries, one third of death and disease is a direct result of environmental causes. Proper environmental management is the key to avoiding the quarter of all preventable illnesses which are directly caused by environmental factors
April 22, 2009
Unless sustainable ways of development and living are not evolved, it will be very difficult to sustain the prevalent kind of urban lifestyle where exploitation of natural resources goes on unabated by the nexus of private corporations and the state. The overriding question is how to create a mode of production which does not depend on the expliotation of nature.
April 22, 2009
Earlier this month the Group of Twenty (G-20) leaders had announced a USD 1.1 trillion booster-dose into the world economy by the end of 2010 through multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Health advocates believe that critical reforms are needed for IMF policies to prevent disastrous fallouts like rising tuberculosis (TB) incidence in countries that might receive IMF funding.
April 21, 2009
"Don't de-politicize politics to this extent" - Arundhati Dhuru
April 17, 2009
The long pending pictorial or graphic health warnings on all tobacco products in India shall finally be impelmented from 30 May 2009. This is in line with the Cigarette and other Tobacco Products Act and the global tobacco treaty which India has ratified (World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control).
April 14, 2009
Bahadur Lal Sonkar (48 years) who was contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections from Jaunpur parliamentary constituency of India, was found dead hanging from a tree on the eve of Ambedkar Jayanti.
April 11, 2009
In times when manifestos of election candidates are announced by the highest seats of political 'ivory towers', a people centric initiative is taking shape in Lucknow. A series of public meetings led to the nomination of people's candidate from prestigious Lok Sabha constituency of Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh in India.
April 07, 2009
The Group of Ministers (GoM) on tobacco warnings is meeting on 8 April 2009 and further dilution or delay to pictorial health warnings on tobacco products is expected. This is a great concern before the nation when the implementation on pictorial warnings is long due now and the deadline is very close (31 May 2009).
April 04, 2009
Earlier this week the Group of Twenty leaders announced a USD 1.1 trillion booster-dose into the world economy by the end of 2010 through multilateral institutions like the International Monetary Fund (IMF). However, in July 2008, analysts from Cambridge and Yale Universities had reported that tuberculosis (TB) in countries with IMF loans rose sharply.
April 01, 2009
There is a growing public movement globally to put pressure on the Group of Twenty (G-20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors that will meet in London, UK, on 2 April 2009, to put a currency transaction levy of 0.005% to raise dedicated resources for funding health programmes. This currency transaction levy of 0.005% can potentially generate USD 30-40 billion a year.
March 30, 2009
The need to include indigenous people in the Global Plan to Stop TB was echoed by many participants at the 3rd Stop TB Partners' Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (23-25 March 2009).
March 28, 2009
Despite of African governments declaring tuberculosis (TB) as an emergency, Africa as a region, faces the largest funding gap of USD 10.7 billion to fully implement the Global Plan to Stop TB by 2015.
March 26, 2009
About 3 million people fail to access TB treatment under directly-observed treatment shortcourse (DOTS), according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Tuberculosis Control Report 2009.
March 23, 2009
"We simply must stop TB. This succinct but compelling message implies a shared responsibility for unified action at all levels, by health-care providers, national and international partners and communities to control and eliminate TB"
March 22, 2009
Involving the TB patients in TB control programmes - particularly those who have successfully completed the TB treatment - might help in Turkey, says Professor (Dr) Nazmi Zengin from Toplum Sagligi Arastirma ve Gelistirme Merkezi (Centre for Research and Promotion of Health) in Konya, Turkey (www.toplumsagligi.org). Dr Nazmi is representing a civil society organization in Turkey, which is a member of the Stop TB Partnership, and attending the 3rd Stop TB Partners' Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
March 22, 2009
The number of drug-susceptibility laboratories (DST) is also not adequate. Most laboratories only test the anti-TB drug resistance for 4 first-line drugs. To test the anti-TB drug resistance for 10 classes of anti-TB drugs, the patients need to go to the university hospitals, the cost of which is often prohibitive and beyond the reach of the patients.
March 22, 2009
In these times of global meltdown, it is all the more critical to focus on how can TB care and control, be still seen as a smart investment to governments, private sector and other stakeholders.
March 20, 2009
How ethical is it to providing treatment for anti-TB drug resistance without quality counseling? The treatment literacy, infection control, toxicity and side-effects related to the treatment, adherence and a range of other issues need to be addressed in counseling sessions, believes the activist from the West Bengal Network of people living with HIV (BNP+) in India. This indeed provides a food for thought for delegates of the 3rd Stop TB Partners Forum (Brazil: 23-25 March 2009) and the high-level ministerial meeting on drug-resistant TB (Beijing, China: 1-3 April 2009).
March 20, 2009
Questions raised on the legitmacy of the corporate-controlled World Water Forum
March 19, 2009
Less than a week before the 3rd Stop TB Partners' Forum is about to begin in Brazil, a unique partnership is being forged in a community of India's capital to improve TB responses.
March 17, 2009
Noted tobacco control advocate and a United Nations consultant Dr Mira Aghi was conferred upon the International award in recognition of her lifetime contribution to advancing tobacco control initiatives for women.
March 15, 2009
Coalition urges UN to stop providing cover for life-threatening privatization of water
March 15, 2009
Earlier this week, the Female Health Company (FHC) announced approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the company's Female Condom (FC2), a woman-initiated barrier method that helps to protect against sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV/AIDS, and unintended pregnancy.
FHC's lower-cost second generation female condom will now be sold at 30 per cent less than the earlier version of female condom.
March 14, 2009
The tobacco industry has historically employed a multitude of tactics to shape and influence tobacco control policy, says a recently released report (Tobacco Industry Interference with Tobacco Control, 2009) of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The tobacco industry has used its economic power, lobbying and marketing machinery, and manipulation of the media to discredit scientific research and influence governments in order to propagate the sale and distribution of its deadly product, it says further.
March 14, 2009
The smoke-free policies in India were enforced since 2 October 2008 and different states are at varying levels of its implementation, yet the tobacco cessation services are still limited to very few clinics in India.
A lead article published in The Economist (7-13 March 2009) says: "tobacco is more addictive than virtually all of them [narcotic drugs]."
With tobacco being highly addictive, it is clear that for a successful implementation of the smoke-free policies, the scaling up of high-quality and reliable tobacco cessation services can no longer be ignored.
March 10, 2009
U.S. CONGRESS CONSIDERS BILL TO REGULATE TOBACCO DURING GLOBAL CONFERENCE
March 08, 2009
Youth from 27 countries that met at the 2nd Global Youth Meet (GYM) in the lead up to the 14th World Conference on Tobacco Or Health (WCTOH) in Mumbai, India, expressed their common ire against cross-border tobacco advertising in films.
Satellite televisions, cinema theatres, CDs, DVDs are some of the ways movies made in any part of the world and dubbed in local languages, reach the youth. Despite of ban on smoking in films at the country level, there is no effective way to curb this channel of films made elsewhere portraying tobacco use in them.
March 01, 2009
The first national convention of People's Politics Front (PPF) shall be convened in the state capital of Uttar Pradesh, Lucknow, on 5-6 March 2009.
"People's Politics Front has been formed to build a political alternative in the country so that people's issues can be brought to center-stage and the dominant model of mainstream political parties which rely on muscle power, money power and unscrupulous ways for winning elections can be rejected" said Dr Sandeep Pandey, Magsaysay awardee (2002) for emergent Leadership and senior social activist.
February 24, 2009
The anti-HIV microbicides research has finally given a positive outcome - the microbicides gel PRO2000 under research showed 30% reduction of HIV transmission in the human clinical trials.
Women who were offered PRO2000 microbicide gel plus condoms had 30 per cent fewer HIV infections than those offered condoms only or condoms plus a placebo gel
February 21, 2009
Anti-Dalit and Anti-poor action by a pro-dalit Government
February 18, 2009
Unless the tuberculosis (TB) advocates reach out to decision makers to impress upon them the urgency of strengthening TB care and control programmes, the global economic meltdown is likely to threaten to reverse the gains made in TB care over past decades.
February 07, 2009
Although the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (GFATM) is falling short of USD 5 billion of its estimated budget for 2009-2010, the Wall Street corporations have disbursed USD 18 billion holiday bonuses in January 2009. The newspapers say this money came from the bail-out money provided by the government (read ´tax payers´).
Where do tax payers want to invest their money – in holiday bonuses or to save lives from AIDS, TB and Malaria in the most hard-hit countries globally?
February 05, 2009
At the fourth Leishmaniasis World Congress in Lucknow, India, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said that there is a serious need to expand availability of effective treatments and diagnosis for visceral leishmaniasis (kala azar) in order to reduce the present burden of disease and resistance to treatments. At the Congress, MSF is presenting important results showing that liposomal amphotericin B (Ambisome) could play a critical role in the fight against the disease.
January 30, 2009
A Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) office-bearer Ghanshyam rained baton rods on dalit workers on 14 January 2009. Ghanshaym is the husband of Urmila Devi, who is the Gram Pradhan of Gram Panchayat Aira Kake Mau, Block Bharawan, District Hardoi, UP. Ghanshyam is also the BSP Treasurer from the Vidhan Sabha constituency of Minister for Science and Technology in UP Government, Abdul Mannan.
January 22, 2009
On 23 January 2009, the Group of Ministers (GoM) in India will again meet to assuage concerns of tobacco lobby on pictorial warnings, health activists apprehend.
January 07, 2009
To confront the present war posturing between India and Pakistan, the citizens of both countries are launching a joint signature petition campaign on 9 January 2009, to voice their mandate against terrorism, war posturing and to promote mutual cooperation and peace. This signature petition campaign shall conclude on 8 February 2009, after which these signatures shall be handed over to the heads of both the nations along with other prominent stakeholders.
November 26, 2008
Pictorial warnings on tobacco products most likely postponed 7th time
November 22, 2008
GLOBAL TOBACCO TREATY MEETING ADOPTS STRONG GUIDELINES FOR PROTECTING AGAINST INDUSTRY ABUSE
November 19, 2008
More than 90% of the diagnosed TB patients are successfully completing treatment in Nepal today. Nepal's anti-TB programme has received appreciation in the south-east Asian region which is the result of ongoing government commitment, community support, forging wide range of partnerships, and the use of innovative ways of ensuring access to Directly Observed Treatment Shortcourse (DOTS) - especially in remote areas, says Dr Dirgh Singh Bam, Secretary, Ministry of Health, Nepal, who is also the former Vice-President of Nepal's Anti-Tuberculosis Association (NATA).
November 18, 2008
The Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare revealed before the Central Information Commission that tobacco industry is putting "pressure" to relax the tobacco control policies (source: The Hindu, 14 November 2008).
October 04, 2008
India is reeking under increasing communal polarisation and urgent steps to check it are warranted.
October 01, 2008
India has boldly enforced the smoke-free policies banning smoking in public places and private areas with public access from 2 October 2008 – the birth anniversary of the father of nation Mahatma Gandhi.
September 24, 2008
There is a growing consensus to raise awareness about diabetes in the 50 days leading up to World Diabetes Day on 14 November 2008. The International Diabetes Federation announced that the theme for this year's campaign is "Diabetes in Children and Adolescents."
Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases to affect children. It can strike children of any age, even toddlers and babies. Every day more than 200 children are diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, requiring them to take multiple daily insulin shots and monitor the glucose levels in their blood. It is increasing at a rate of 3% each year among children and rising even faster in pre-school children at a rate of 5% per year. Over 70,000 children a year under the age of 15 get diabetes.
September 20, 2008
Thankfully, the commitment of Andhra Pradesh state-capital's Medical and Health Officer Ms Jaya Kumari to enforce smoke-free policies and that of Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss is indeed unprecedented.
Smoking in public places will be banned from 2 October 2008 in compliance with the rulings of The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.
However a recent walk around in city of nawabs - Hyderabad - makes me wonder if the city is geared to enforce this public health policy.
September 02, 2008
All tobacco products will display approved pictorial warnings from 30 November 2008, as per a notification issued by the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (dated 27 August 2008), in accordance with the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003.
Grim images of diseased lungs will appear on cigarette, bidi and gutkha packets, as per the notification, covering 40 per cent of the surface area of the tobacco packets, with the message: 'Tobacco kills/Smoking kills'.
August 12, 2008
Formal merger negotiations were announced between two key HIV/TB development agencies - Health & Development Networks (HDN) and the International HIV/AIDS Alliance - at the XVII International AIDS Conference which ended in Mexico on 8 August 2008.
August 02, 2008
There is a deliberate misinformation being created that nuclear plants will be a quick fix to our huge shortages and power cuts. Nuclear plants have to have detailed studies regarding where and how to put them up and take a long time to build. The import of reactors have to be negotiated commercially and their fuel has to be guaranteed. Typically, the entire process takes 8-10 years. So even if we finish all the steps required to complete the India US Nuclear Deal, it will take not less than 8-10 years before any electricity is produced. And this is an optimistic figure; the last plant that the US commissioned -- the Watts Bar 2 Reactor -- took 23 years to complete. So the belief that nuclear energy will provide an immediate solution to our power crisis is a deliberate fraud on the people, said Dr Pandey.
July 14, 2008
Last week the bollywood heartthrob film-star Aamir Khan was found smoking after the launch of the latest blockbuster movie 'jaane tu … ya jaane na'. Earlier in June 2008, he was reported saying that he is back to smoking due to 'stress' related to the forthcoming release of 'jaane tu … ya jaane na' film and he will quit smoking right after the film-release. Although the film has been successfully released and is doing well at box office, the cigarettes are hard to leave… and Aamir continues to smoke.
Tobacco is addictive, and some researchers feel nicotine is as addictive as heroin. It is not impossible to quit, but not easy too, because tobacco is so powerfully addictive!
July 01, 2008
Despite of the India's legally-binding Cigarette and Other tobacco products Act (2003) and repeated appeals of India's Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss to bollywood film-stars to refrain from on-screen smoking, there seems to be less compliance in the guise of 'creative liberty'.
On 30 June 2008, the Goa Bench of Mumbai High Court issued notice to megastar 'Big B' - Amitabh Bachchan - and others for allegedly violating the Anti-Tobacco Act. Goa-based anti-tobacco organisation, National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE), had filed the case against Bachchan and others after billboards showing the megastar smoking a cigar were raised on the Goa highway. Indian Society Against Smoking (ISAS) had also earlier served a legal notice to Amitabh Bachchan through Manu Shresth Mishra, a High Court lawyer practicing in Lucknow, UP. The court, which heard the case on 30 June 2008, issued notice to Bachchan, Anchor Electric appliances, Keshu Ramsay and others.
June 29, 2008
Amidst protests against price rises of essential items throughout the country, the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has again started harping on the issue of the Indo-US Nuclear Deal. Activists of National Alliance of People's Movements (NAPM) - the largest network of people's struggles in India - opposed the deal.
"The Deal has been pushed forward in India in an anti-democratic manner without approval of the Parliament - in fact in the teeth of opposition by a large majority of parliamentarians" said Dr Sandeep Pandey, who is a Ramon Magsaysay Awardee (2002) and a convener of NAPM.
June 26, 2008
The Uttar Pradesh government has taken a cabinet decision to hike the salary of doctors of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj Medical University (CSMMU), (formerly King George's Medical College or KGMC) to be at par with Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences (SGPGIMS).
CSMMU doctors have faced decades of neglect by being deprived of facilities and being one of the most lowly paid government doctors in the country. Till now, these doctors at CSMMU were not even getting the University Grants Commission (UGC) pay-scale.
However despite of the meagre resources, the institution and its Gandhi Memorial & Associated Hospitals (GM & AH) have been providing healthcare services to one of the largest numbers of patients in India.
June 23, 2008
Many concerned Indians in the USA, UK, Canada, UK, Australia, Thailand and other countries are fasting from 16 - 25 June 2008 along with hundreds of activists in Raipur, Chhattisgarh, demanding the annulment of the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act (CSPSA) 2005, and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) 1967, amended in 2004, and the release of Dr Binayak Sen (medical doctor and recipient of the prestigious Jonathan Mann award for Health and Human Rights), Ajay TG (filmmaker) and others.
These draconian laws (CSPSA and UAPA) sanction the violation of due process by the state, and thus contravene internationally accepted norms of jurisprudence as well as democratic governance. As Mr.Kannabiran, National President of PUCL, India, argues in his letter to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the CSPSA and UAPA operate by criminalizing the very performance of civil liberties activities, and culpability is decided upon not by direct proof, but through guilt by association.
June 22, 2008
Retired IIT Kanpur Professor (retired) Dr GD Agarwal, 76 years, is sitting on a fast-unto-death since 13 June 2008 to save the Ganga from the aggressive onslaught of strings of dams and hydel projects in Uttarakhand. On 21 June 2008, the Uttarakhand government had to forcibly disrupt the peaceful and non-violent agitation of Prof Agarwal, forcing the unflinching crusader to move to the nation's capital to continue his agitation.
June 21, 2008
Retired IIT Kanpur Professor (retired) Dr GD Agarwal, 76 years, is sitting on a fast-unto-death since 13 June 2008 to save the Ganga from the aggressive onslaught of strings of dams and hydel projects in Uttarakhand. Today the fast entered 9th day.
June 16, 2008
A 10-days fast (16 - 25 June 2008) demanding the release of Dr Binayak Sen began today in India, Pakistan, Thailand, US and UK. More than 100 organizations have endorsed this fast and campaign demanding justice for Dr Sen worldwide.
June 04, 2008
On June 9, for the first-time government, public health and business leaders, heads of UN agencies and advocates are coming together at United Nations (UN) Headquarters to acknowledge HIV/TB as an urgent priority. This first HIV/TB Global Leaders' Forum, convened by Dr Jorge Sampaio, the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Stop TB, seeks to galvanize leadership at all levels.
June 02, 2008
Hundreds of activists will be fasting from 16-25 June 2008 demanding immediate release of Dr Binayak Sen, and others who are in jail since more than a year now in Chhattisarh under the draconian Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act 2005, and the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (1967) amended in 2004.
Dr Binayak Sen, is also the recipient of Jonathan Mann Award for Global Health and Human Rights (2008).
May 31, 2008
Despite of five years having passed by since the globally acclaimed national tobacco control parliamentary Act (The Cigarette and other tobacco products Act 2003) was formed, and more than four years since India had ratified the FCTC (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control) - which happens to be the world's first global public health and corporate accountability treaty – the urgent need to contain tobacco-related diseases, morbidity and mortality, remains as compelling.
May 27, 2008
On 31 May 2008, is the World No Tobacco Day. Just 10 days before, WHO released the World Health Statistics Report (2008) which clearly indicates that non-communicable diseases are the biggest killers in the world, the risk to which is exacerbated by tobacco use. It is time to scale up time-tested and proven interventions to control tobacco use globally.