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Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
Showing posts with label India. Show all posts
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Director Damien Chazelle’s Oscar-nominated drama film Whiplash will release in India on February 20, ahead of the 87th Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.
The film, which stars Miles Teller, JK Simmons and Paul Reiser has been nominated for five Oscars, including Best Motion Picture and Best Supporting Actor. Mr Simmons also won the Golden Globe Award in Best Actor in Supporting Role category for the film.
The story of the film revolves around Andrew (played by Miles Teller), who enrolls himself to a music conservatory to become a phenomenal musician and drummer. The school, which is run by Fletcher (played by Mr Simmons); a gentleman who knows no boundaries to push his students to achieve greatness and uses extreme measures towards them to make them perform their ultimate best.
The film will be released in India by Pictureworks and distributed by PVR Pictures, said a statement.
The Academy Awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on February 22, and it will be aired in India February 23 morning.
When it comes to health, you are likely to have never considered the effects of poliomyelitis (polio for short) as the disease has largely been eradicated in the western world. Unfortunately, the disease has proliferated in other countries, and a recent epidemic has been seen in India. This has meant that the disease has come to the attention of the World Health Organisation again.
The impact of the virus on children can be very serious, and so the WHO is now charged with the job of making sure that travellers stay as healthy as they possibly can.
Polio comes from a virus, and is very infectious indeed, usually passed from person to person through inhalation. Symptoms begin in a similar way to the flu virus, such as with vomiting, fever, headaches and extreme tiredness. In addition to these fluey type symptoms, many people with polio exhibit some kind of respiratory distress. Polio can leave the sufferer with all kinds of debilitating after effects, such as lower leg paralysis. It can even lead to death in around ten percent of all cases.
Polio generally affects children under the age of five, and can be a very dangerous and debilitating disease. For this reason, if you are planning to travel to a country such as India with your child, you must ensure that all of their vaccinations are up to date, in line with what is recommended by the immunisation programs in the United States and anything else that your GP recommends.
Polio is also more prevalent at certain times of the year, in particular times when the temperatures are volatile, such as in the summer or autumn. There is no cure available for polio, so taking the right preventative measures is extremely important, especially for the very young and those who have underlying health conditions.
There has been a decade of rapid economic growth for India, but unfortunately, the country’s environmental problem is still abound. This affects the wellness and wellbeing of Indian residents in a number of ways as they are frequently exposed to serious water and air pollution.
A recent report has shown that the environmental problems do also have an effect on the economy, and that in fact environmental degradation costs India some $80 billion every year, which represents 5.7 percent of the economy.
In order to tackle this problem, more green strategies are needed to help break out of this pattern and stop the natural resource depletion in its tracks. It is thought that emission reductions could actually be achieved with minimal cost to the GDP.
The fantastic economic growth in India has allowed millions of people to emerge from poverty thanks to increased employment opportunities, but unfortunately this wonderful growth record is tempered by the degrading environment and the increased scarcity of natural resources.
A recent survey was carried out into 132 countries, with their environments being surveyed, and of these, India ranked very near the bottom at 126th position, and ranked 132nd in the ‘Air Pollution’ category, which measured effects on human health. This means that India has the worst pollution in the whole world. An additional survey of the 20 most polluted cities in the world found that 13 of these were in India, showing a serious problem with pollution in the country.
Poverty is responsible for environmental degradation to a certain extent, as degraded lands are often overused by the poor. These lands then give a lower yield, worsening the problem with poverty and thus creating a vicious cycle of environmental degradation and impoverishment.
The stigma around mental and emotional health still runs very deep in India. Due to a very serious lack of support and health care, mental wellness and wellbeing can very quickly deteriorate, leading to soaring suicide risks amongst those who are mentally ill. Many Indian villagers still believe that bad spirits are to blame for mental health problems, and this causes a great deal of fear and social stigma, especially in rural communities. The focus now is on training up community-based workers who specialise in mental health.
Due to the extreme lack of understanding surrounding mental health in India, many people see somebody who is suffering from a mental health problem and genuinely believe that the person is invaded by angry spirits, who are punishing the person for some kind of wrongdoing in a past life (such as killing a cow). Therapy often involves a witch doctor who, alongside the family of the afflicted person, chain up mentally ill people, chant spells at them, poke them with pins or even beat them in an attempt to ‘force out the evil spirits’.
Dr. Indira Sharma, who is the president of the Indian Psychiatric Society confirms that there is very little awareness about mental problems as real illnesses. Most people in India, he claims, still think that mental illness is an imagined things, and he confirms that the stigma is still very serious.
The population of India is around 1.2 billion and yet there are only around 4,000 trained psychiatrists in the whole of India, compared with, for example, the 50,000 in the United States (4,500 of which are in California alone). In recent years, however, the Indian government has increased spending in the area of mental health in an attempt to curb the ever-rising suicide rates in the country.
When it comes to personal hygiene, you can’t get more personal than a sanitary pad. However, while they may be a Godsend to female wellness, environmental wellness is taking a hit and Indian officials are starting to do something about it.
The female population of Pune – the state of Maharashtra’s cultural and academic capital – uses an estimated 10million sanitary pads, or 140 tonnes, every month, which poses a major challenge to dispose of them without harming the wellbeing of the planet. Therefore, in a move that is the first of its kind in all of India, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) have issued a requirement to all sanitary pad manufacturers that they must include an identifiable disposal bag with each sanitary pad. This has been done with the hope of eliminating environmental and health hazards arising out of the disposal of sanitary pads.
In January, manufacturers including Johnson & Johnson, Proctor & Gamble, Hindustan Unilever and Kimberly Clarke Lever were invited to a meeting with Mayor Vaishali Bankar and Municipal Commissioner Mahesh Pathak, in order to work on a solution. However, as no company representative turned up, non-government organisation Solid Waste Collection and Management (SWaCH), decided it was time to take direct action. Malati Gadgil, who is handling SWaCH’s business expansion, commented, ‘On March 8th, International Women’s Day, we collected bundles of used sanitary pads and returned them to the companies which manufactured them.’ A bold move; but it worked.
Top companies sent officials to meet with the PMC authorities in April, and promised a solution within the next three months. However, even though the companies pledged to work on the disposal of the used sanitary pads, whether they should be segregated as wet or dry waste, whether the products are bio-degradable or not and whether they are recyclable or not, these turned out to be empty promises. According to Gadgil, ‘Three months have passed since the meeting but they have not acted in the matter. We shall continue the campaign and explore other avenues in the matter.’ Joint Municipal Commissioner Suresh Jagtap added that, going by the Extended Producers Responsibility under the Plastics Management & Handling Rules, set in 2011, manufacturers have a responsibility for their products till the very end of their use.
Deepak Chopra, one of the most famous Ayurvedic healers in history, claims that the body contains immense levels of knowledge, about which we are not yet aware. Ayurveda is a 5,000 year old, ancient healing system that has originated in India and spread throughout the rest of the world. At the centre of Ayurvedic healing is the notion of intuitive and holistic wellbeing. This complementary medicine is called Ayurveda as the word means ‘life knowledge’ in ancient Sanskrit.
Ayurveda is the only form of healing that looks at wellness from every possible angle, and looks to heal both emotional, mental and spiritual parts of the ailment as well as the obvious physical problems. Ayurvedic healers believe that every aspect of the human body and mind is connected, and that in order to heal someone completely you need to heal every aspect of the problem.
Within Ayurveda, the practice centres around something called ‘doshas’. These are ‘humours’ that are present in the human body, and they are divided into three types: pitta, vata and kapha. In most people’s bodies, one of these doshas is more dominant than the others, and this determines what type of personality they have and what their mental state is like. A large imbalance in the doshas, however, can lead to illnesses.
Keeping the doshas balanced is an important aspect of Ayurvedic health, and this is mainly done through lifestyle and diet, as well as other techniques such as panchakarma and massage. The pitta dosha, for example, is often thought to be unbalanced in the modern world, as stress and strains can lead to this dosha being overly present, and this in turn leads to a variety of physical ailments. Ayurvedic practitioners believe that if you gain an understanding of how to balance your doshas, every other aspect of Ayurveda, and, indeed, your life, will fall into place.
If you live in a secular family, masturbation is seen as a natural part of sexual health; albeit with a tendency to be associated with hormonal teenage boys. But what about those who live in a different culture or have religious beliefs; how do they see masturbation’s role in sexual wellbeing?
According to Dr Vijaysarathi Ramanathan, a Sexual Health Physician and Sexuality Therapist and the founding director/CEO of SSS Centre for Sexual Health, ‘Masturbation seems to have many, many myths attached to it. We’ve been told among other things that it can make one infertile, impotent, go blind, grow hair on the back of your palm, cause pimples, make you weak and leads to mental problems! Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that sex and particularly masturbation is such a taboo topic in India and is seen as something that’s sinful or bad.’
Dr Ramanathan comments, ‘As far as I know the ancient Indian society didn’t legislate any sexual matters other than abortion and adultery. It is also suggestive from the texts and sculptures that ancient India had a very liberal sexual attitude. In contrast, modern India has a deeply conservative attitude towards sex, perhaps due to its long British rule which passed on many chauvinist, conservative Victorian values to Indians.’
‘Another key reason might be the belief that semen is a precious and irreplaceable commodity which mustn’t be wasted,’ he adds. ‘The two key traditional beliefs that are relevant to the topic of discussion, are (1) well-preserved semen produces a male child and (2) a male child will release a man from reincarnation (birth-re-birth cycle). Traditional medicine equates semen to fertility (able to give birth) and masculinity (be able to make good love with wife and be a good and strong man in general).’
So, then, is Dr Ramanathan saying that masturbation is wrong or bad for your wellness? Quite the opposite. ‘It really is an individual choice. It is a healthy and safe sexual practice for those have adequate knowledge and know the facts. But, if someone masturbates without understanding the facts and carry guilt and fear, then it is important for them to be educated and manage the anxiety and stress first. Thus, it is not the behaviour but the feelings toward masturbation that could determine whether masturbation is healthy or a problem.’
When your wellness is affected by diabetes, you need to take several daily decisions to manage your blood glucose levels the best you can. However, as you can’t have a doctor watching out for your wellbeing every day, you need to learn about the disease and manage it yourself. This is where The illustrated guide to living with diabetes in India comes in; a comprehensive, reliable self-management guide for people with diabetes which will launch in India soon.
Authored by The Living with Diabetes in India (LWDI) Community – the world’s largest and most trusted online community of diabetics, caregivers and healthcare professionals supporting diabetics in India – the book serves as a practical guide to help you self-manage diabetes, providing reliable information and useful advice. Based on the most accurate and trustworthy medical information worldwide, the guide is a culmination of a year’s worth of work from by a team of medical writers, artists and diabetologists.
According to Praful Akali, the editor of the book, founder-member of the LWDI community, an IIM alumnus and head of one of the leading medical communications agencies in the country, ‘We were surprised to learn that there is no single source of practical yet reliable information for people with diabetes to better manage their condition. Based on the latest peer-reviewed scientific information and with inputs from the country’s leading doctors, nutritionists, counsellors and fellow diabetics, the book promises to marry scientific credibility with practicality.’
Now available for pre-order on www.flipkart.com, the book is co-published in India by leading book publishers, Popular Prakashan, whose CEO, Manish Purohit, commented, ‘As a publisher, we have seen many books that claim to educate people on various health issues. However, this book is unique in its engaging content and in bringing together the reliable information in such simple language. We are happy with our partnered association with a book of this genre and to lend our support to the cause of patient education for diabetes management.’
Dr. Debasis Basu, medical coordinator, LWDI added, ‘As genetics and lifestyle have conspired heavily to inflict an epidemic of diabetes in our subcontinent with approximately 67 million people affected with diabetes in India in 2013, we need to focus our attention on changing our lifestyles to manage the disease. This guide will help you believe that if good and right care is taken, even with diabetes, you are the master of your own life.’
Online Diabetes Community Launches Self-Management Guidebook
The Indian parliament has introduced tougher laws, designed to protect the sexual health of young women. This has been introduced in the wake of the outrage surrounding the case of a young woman who was gang raped on an Indian bus, and subsequently died.
Under the new legislation, the wellbeing of young women will be more highly prioritised, as those who suffer from voyeurism, stalking or sexual harassment will now be better protected under the law as these actions have become criminalised. The new law also means that those who carry out repeated or fatal rape attacks will be subject to the most serious punitive measures – the death penalty. In addition to this, it makes it illegal for police officers to refuse to open a case when they receive a report of a sexual attack – an occurrence which has been all too common up until now.
The shocking attack, which took place in December of last year, has placed a strong focus on the wellness of women in India, and thus public pressure has brought this legislation into play. It still requires the president’s signature in order to become official law, however.
Women’s activists view this new law as an important milestone in the fight for women’s rights in India, but do have some reservations about it, as well as being concerned as the country does not have a strong history of law enforcement. Campaigners urge caution amid celebration, pointing out that there is still a long way to go before women are both safe and equal in Indian society.
Both the upper and lower houses of parliament in India have approved the bill, following on from it being hurried through parliament due to the extent of the outrage that was ignited by the recent fatal rape in India.
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Stricter Indian Laws on Sexual Violence
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