Articles by Debabar Banerji

While the protection of children in consonance with broad-based primary health care activities is a desirable objective, the immunisation package being promoted today ignores vital epidemiological, biological and administrative factors.

The cumulative effect of the numerous shortcomings in the medical profession in India is the virtual breakdown of the public health system.
THE medical profession in India is in the midst of a profound crisis. This crisis has percolated deep into most of medical and health institutions and organisations. The morale of the medical personnel seems to have touched a new low. This crisis has been brewing for a considerable time. One reason for the sudden outburst is that hitherto a sustained effort had been made to cover it up through deliberate neglect of collection of some key information, active suppression and distortion of information, indulging in cheap propaganda gimmicks and spread of disinformation. However, the situation has now worsened to such an extent that it is no longer possible to keep the lid on. Three categories of symptoms of the crisis are presented below.

kind of political and economic golden age'' (p 228). There is also the ardent appreciation of Nehruvian socialism. "For Nehru, socialism meant using the planned development of an industrial society to eliminate poverty, provide social justice, create a self- reliant economy, and assure national independence and security in world politics. In a mixed economy, the state would occupy the commanding heights. The socialist state would serve society by providing collective and public goods from which everyone would benefit'' (p 62). They also have the hope that Rajiv Gandhi would correct the aberrations of the past because of his commitment to federalism and because "he recognises, as his mother did not, that India can only be governed by significant sharing of power" (p 85, see also p 102), Whether or not these views indicate that for the authors centrism is a creed, they can be shown to be closely related to their THIS book discusses aspects of health care in India. The conventional way of discussing health status of a population and the health services that are available and accessible to individual members is to take into account certain epidemiological, administrative, manpower and technological aspects, without relating them to the wider socio-cultural and political situation. There have been severe criticism of the health services even when such an apolitical, asocial and ahistorical approach is used. A recent one is from the government of India itself in its Statement on National Health Policy which received approval of the parliament in 1983. It complains that more than three and half decades after Independence, the health services in India remain curative and urban in its orientation and that it is accessible only to the 'upper crusts' of the society; that its manpower development and curative institutions are moulded in the Western model; and that a wide cultural gap exists between the providers of health services and the masses of the people. The symptoms of the sickness of the health services in India are described very well. However, a diagnosis will require a wider socio-cultural and political analysis.

December 7, 1985 the average Chinese consumed 1.4 kg of edible oil. 5 kg of fish and 7.7 kg of meat, between one-half and onethird the nutritional requirements. The picture that emerges, therefore, is that despite a massive attempt to divert human and financial resources to the countryside, development and environ- ment haven't reinforced each other sufficiently Smil does make it clear that the living standards in villages are better than they ever were: