A brief history of witch burnings, abortion laws and insurance rules that have taken midwifery to near extinction
Science and Health
Science and Health
Two Kidney Recipients, and A Failed Liver Donor
My association with the late Cabinet ministers Arun Jaitely and Sushma Swaraj is ineffably with them as transplant patients: two kidney recipients, and me, a failed liver donor. I come from a transplant family myself: my father got a life-saving liver transplant in June 2018 with my mother as the donor.
Science and Health
The Surprising Generosity of the Online Crowd
Milaap, Ketto and ImpactGuru collectively raised Rs 272 crore for medical emergencies in 2018. This is 11% of the ₹2,400 crore inaugural budget for Ayushman Bharat, the Central scheme rolled out by the government that promises ₹5 lakh free health insurance for the poorest 40% of the population.
Science and Health
Sum of Her Parts
Women constitute 74% kidney donors. For liver surgeries, the data I received was much more limited because these transplants happen almost entirely in private hospitals, which do not come under RTI. Here, women are 60.5% of the donors
Essays, Science and Health
The Privilege of the 0.1%
If cinema is a lens to understand society, then both
Placebo and Munnabhai MBBS tell you two things–why doctors evoke such dislike, and why they themselves appear dehumanized and alienated, out of love with the work they have spent so
many years in training for.
Science and Health
How the Public Tragedy of the Kolkata Flyover Collapse Was Buried
More than one year since the Kolkata flyover collapse that killed 26, the criminal trial has not begun. The police are not speaking on the record. And the government is silent
Science and Health
‘I can’t take it anymore’: Sights and awful sounds from the labour room of an Indian public hospital
A reporter goes undercover to see how women are treated in a large government facility in Kolkata By SOHINI CHATTOPADHYAY | 31 May 2015 Munmun Mukherjee is a good patient. She lies quiet on the white stone delivery table of the government hospital in Kolkata but for an occasional low moan. Even this is muted, the edge of her voice flattened, as…
Science and Health
Inside the Fellowship of the Relentlessly Positive
India is said to have the third highest population of HIV positive people in the world. It’s no longer a disease anyone seems to talk about though there are fresh infections everyday. Funds are drying up and everyone’s looking away. But for those newly diagnosed, for those who have been living with it for years, hope comes from within the community…
Science and Health
Why Can’t HIV-Positive Indians Get Life Insurance?
It is a handsome November afternoon outside, and the mood at the monthly meeting of the Delhi Network of Positive People in Neb Sarai is relaxed, cheerful Saturday. There is giggling and catching up, a wedding invitation has been issued to all present, there are plans for singing and dancing later on. Tea is being made, biscuits have been ordered,…
Science and Health
The Birth of a Male Contraceptive
It was while purifying water that the thought of contraception came to the mind of Professor Sujoy Kumar Guha. The IIT-Delhi professor, who had already earned the reputation of a maverick, had been commissioned with finding a cheap, effective means to disinfect drinking water by the Government of India. Guha, an admirer of the eel, had written a paper—as part…