a Society for Community Health Awareness, Research and Action (SOCHARA), Bangalore, Karnataka, India. Correspondence to Ravi Narayan (email: [email protected]) The WHO South-East Asia Region was one of the crucibles for development of the primary health care (PHC) concept. The Bandung Conference on Rural Hygiene held in 1937 drew global attention, through the League of Nations Health Organizatio...

Awareness of the health risks of smoking is an important factor in predicting smoking-related behaviour; however, little is known about the knowledge of health risks in low-income countries such as India. The present study examined beliefs about the harms of smoking and the impact of health knowledge on intentions to quit among a sample of 249 current smokers in both urban and rural areas in tw...

BACKGROUND To investigate the prevalence of depression, suicidal ideations, alcohol and nicotine consumption in adults in an agrarian society mostly unchanged by the effects of urbanization. METHODS The Central India Eye and Medical Study is a population-based study in rural Central India close to the tribal belt and included 4711 subjects (aged 30+ years). Depression was assessed by the Cent...

Existing studies of the digital divide reveals the gap that exists between those who have access to ICTs and those who do not create exclusion, endanger social integration and hamper economic growth. The digital divide has many dimensions and can be categorized as global, regional and national. At national level, there is no single divide, but multiple divides: for instance, within countries, b...

There is an immediate need to step up the flow of credit to agricultural and other rural activities in India for improving rural productivity and economic welfare. In this context, we propose an ICT-based solution for improving the delivery of credit and other services to the rural areas through unbundling and outsourcing of the rural banking operations. The solution involves setting up of a co...

How does one measure financial risk aversion for a rural individual that has no knowledge of financial products? What household variables influence financial risk aversion? To answer this question, this study implemented Biswanger’s Lottery with an added gains and losses competent, in a series of six games, on a sample of 45 individuals drawn from two villages in rural India. For each participa...

BACKGROUND Five countries in Asia including Bangladesh, China, India, Thailand and Vietnam formed a network called Asia-Pacific Network for Health Professional Education Reforms (ANHER). This network collectively conducted a survey at the national level and at the institutional level (for medical, nursing and public health education). We also undertook an assessment of final year graduates from...

Background: Realizing the ill effects of increasing population, India was the first country to have started a state sponsored Family Planning Programme, long back in 1952; India is the second most populous country of the world only after China. To attain the required targets India needs nationwide surveys to assess the practices of contraception especially in poor performing states in order to ...

Introduction Evidence shows that eight per cent of maternal mortality in India is caused by unsafe abortions. India was one of the pioneer countries to legalize its abortion services as early as 1971. The Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTP) is an enabling regulation, which allows MTP on both medical and social grounds and thus facilitates access to safe abortion services. However, despit...

Most cities in India have high air and noise pollution caused by transport vehicles, especially petrol/diesel-powered three-wheelers. An improved and electric cycle rickshaw can provide a nonpolluting and silent transport system for urban and rural areas of India. It can also provide largescale employment to millions of urban and rural poor. Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute has developed...