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...

“New Alliance To Prevent NCDs In India,”  Suneel’s blog is among 6 Most Read IOGT Global Voices Blogs In 2016 The Global Voices Blog Portal on www.iogt.org has generated 65 blog posts in 2016. The blog portal has grown in readership and unique visitors numbers as the authors continue to cover a diverse range of topics and geographic regions. This is the list of the 6 most read blog posts: “The Curious Case Of All The Guidelines,” by Maik Dünnbier Read Maik’s blog here. “If You Could Save The Planet, Would You?” by Kristina Sperkova Read Kristina’s blog here. “Chang Beer Targeting Kids,” by Teera Watcharapranee Read Teera’s blog here. “New Alliance To Prevent NCDs In India,” by Suneel Vatsyayan Read Suneel’s blog here. “Unholy Alliance – How African-American Stars And Big Alcohol Exploit Black People,” by Brenda Mkwesha Read Brenda’s blog here. “Is Alcohol A Source Of Pleasure,” by Viktor Watz Read Viktor’s blog here.

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...

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 ...

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...

Social Media And Best Interest Of The Child Category:   Alcohol Culture ,  Marketing ,  Policy ,  Youth Email Share on Twitter Share on Facebook What kind of social defence do we have for the social media? It socializes and influences to an increasingly greater extent. And its impact seems to become bigger compared to “real life” social relations. It seems impossible for parents and teachers to monitor their children online. I was watching a  televised debate  on National Television DD News this week about a  news story  published in a Daily news paper:  “Close Facebook accounts now, Bangalore school tells its kids”.  It was interesting to see how the decision of the school triggers a national debate in the best interest of the child. Questions raised during the debate were for instance: Should we just leave it to the child and let him/her decide? When does a virtual boundary cross the social boundaries and harms the ...

ITYF urges FIFA to protect child rights Category:   Alcohol Industry ,  Family ,  Prevention ,  Violence ,  Youth Children Email Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Myself, along with other members of  ITYF   appreciate the International efforts to reduce alcohol-related violence, protect public health and social development; we also understand that Brazilian football stadiums have been kept free from alcohol sales since 2003. These measures go along with scientific evidence from, among others, a WHO study, which included Brazil, showing that ca. 46% of violent incidents seen in emergency rooms are related to alcohol use. We condemn the  statement of FIFA  General Secretary Valcke ) in its totality that the “Right to sell beer has to be a part of the World cup law. “  ITYF members also urge the Brazilian Government to uphold the best interest of the child, respect the scientific evidence and social needs of children and ...