Young India Network for Good Health

Let Us Talk: Developing Connections And Empowering Communities For Well-Being by   Suneel Vatsyayan Posted on Mar 23 '17,  Community roots, community reach Chanda (name changed), along with eight other peer educators with a similar background, regularly visits families in an urban slum of New Delhi to talk with them about diabetes, hypertension, cancer and alcohol and tobacco. These peer educators are 15- to 18-year old students and are living in the same community where they conduct their interventions. That makes it easier for them to understand and to make a connection with the families they meet. Five out of nine peer educators share how their fathers were addicted to alcohol and despite being girls how they managed to make their fathers understand and help them overcome addiction. Building on their own stories and being able to rely on their intimate understanding of the community, the peer educators, like Chanda, are able to rela...

Alcohol Promotion by Celebrities Is Health Hazard! Increasingly celebrities in India seek to make loads of money in a short period of time, and choose collaboration with unethical companies, promoting harmful products. And then there are powerful role models who choose another path… BY   Suneel Vatsyayan The endorsement by celebrities of products can have serious adverse effects on health – for example in the case of MAGGI and school children. Maggi product “2 minute noodle” (that is popular with school kids) was  found to be containing Mono Sodium Glutamate (MSG)  and lead higher than the permissible limits. The samples collected by Uttar Pradesh Food Safety and Drug Administration proved that MAGGI’s advertising messages, driven home by Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit – falsely boasted “nutritional value” of the noodles. The common people increasingly feel they are being cheated and I can sense that outrage against stars end...

Cops' False Reporting May Be Real Reason??? States known for their high consumption of liquor have reported less road deaths caused due to driving under influence of alcohol.Goa, Kerala, Sikkim and Tripura reported only one fatality each while Bengal, Manipur, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep and Puducherry registered no death due to drunk driving in 2013. Six other states and UTs including Delhi and Gujarat reported less than 10 deaths. The data is encouraging at a time when India is struggling to reduce its road fatalities. According to the latest road accident report of the road transport ministry , the number of accidents caused due to driving under influence of al cohol and drugs decreased to 20,290 in 2012 from 23,979 the previous year. Total deaths decreased significantly to 6,463 last year from 7,835 in 2012. The big change is primarily on account of UP and Jharkhand witnessing sharp drop in fatalities due to drunk driving. The data shows that thou...

Email Share on Twitter Share on Facebook In India, alcohol is not as common as in the Western world (remember: Europe is the region in the world that consumes alcohol most heavily.). Alcohol in India is a controlled and luxury item unlike packaged water or juice. But also India is burdened by alcohol harm and therefore we advocate for better regulations on local and state level as well as for a national alcohol policy. Some regulations are in place already. For instance regulations concerning labelling and packaging. The bottle and package design gives the alcohol product a deceptive identity instead of introducing the customer to the ingredients honestly. Alcoholic beverages are not classified as single ingredient foods and so the manufacturer in foreign countries needs to follow the labelling requirement as per “The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India” (  http://www.fssai.gov.in/ ) (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011. Recently this measure has...

SUNEEL'S BLOG Alcohol Control In India: A Public Health Perspective Category:   Non-Communicable Diseases ,  Policy Email Share on Twitter Share on Facebook The social acceptability or tolerance to alcohol in the Indian society has  reached a dangerous portent . This was a major concerns shared by health professionals, civil society and government officials at a consultation on “Alcohol Control: Public Health Perspective – moving forward towards a comprehensive National alcohol control policy”, organised by the Public Health Foundation of India ( PHFI ) in collaboration with the Union Health Ministry. In India, alcohol is a state subject and states and union territories have the power to frame policies and guidelines on issues relating to movement, possession, marketing, availability, consumption, sale and state excise rates of alcohol. The above action of the Haryana Government is just a glimpse of the challenges and hurdles faced by civil society and ...

Licences of expats are cancelled immediately; Indians are given three chances. - Sudhir Shetty/DNA The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) seems to be going softer on Indian pilots in comparison with expats who are charged with consuming alcohol before or during a flight. As per a new law being drafted by the DGCA, any Indian pilot or crew member, found positive for consumption of alcohol, will have his/her licence cancelled for three months. In case, the same individual is caught a second time, his/her licence will be cancelled for two years and for five years, the third time.  In contrast, if an expat is caught for the first time, his flying permit will be cancelled and subsequently the licence issuing authority will be informed about the offence, claims the new draft report undersigned by DGCA chief Arun Misra. As per DGCA guidelines, even when the level of alcohol in the blood is zero, there could be some effects of hangover. These congeners may take 15-...

Brand new blogs dealing with: Human Rights, especially the rights of children and women's rights. Alcohol Policy, especially developments in South Africa, Ghana and Uganda. Big Alcohol operations in Ireland and around the world, by the example of Diageo. Narcotic Drugs Policy processes on global scale, especially fighting for civil society involvement. In this Global Voices Update< http://www.iogt.org/ world-wide/ > we bring you voices from around the world who took a closer look at a number of exciting and hot issues: - Maik looks at what the global alcohol industry is doing to drive up alcohol harm< http://www.iogt.org/ policyofficerupdate/388/how- big-alcohol-manufactures-more- occasions-for-alcohol-use/ > in order to earn more money; - Rogers looks at how alcohol policy developments turn out in Uganda, with a brand new Status Report< http://www.iogt.org/ africaupdate/69/2nd-state-of- alcohol-and-drug-abuse-report- 2013/ > on alcohol in Uganda and David looks a...