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How Did West Bengal Perform in the ‘Firecracker Ban Test’ amid COVID-19?

Vol. 57, Issue No. 9, 26 Feb, 2022
This article analyses what makes a social regulation like the firecracker ban in the state of West Bengal in India a success story such that it may be replicated by other states which are striving hard to curb air pollution levels and arrest rising pandemic cases amidst a festive season. The authors have examined the firecracker ban on the basis of Teubner’s Regulatory Trilemma and Parker and Braithwaite’s three principles to check whether it passes the tests of effectiveness, responsiveness and coherence. The article demonstrates how West Bengal has carved a new and expanded meaning of “performing regulation” in India by ensuring compliance through not just a threat of punishment but cooperation as well.

Trust in Public Health Practice

Two instances of trust deficit during the COVID-19 pandemic reveal that trust-building is a process based on past experiences of people, built through engagement with institutions and service providers over a longer period. First, it is in the context of accessing treatment in the midst of inadequate access to healthcare, and second, about vaccine hesitancy. There is a need to acknowledge the role of public trust for effective public health practice, especially when the science behind the programme is intellectually arduous for the common public.

Air Quality Management in India at the Crossroads

The discourse around air quality has grown substantially since 2015 with renewed engagement from the judiciary, new-found political salience, and executive initiatives. As we move from diagnosing the extent and causes of the crisis to finding appropriate responses, air quality governance will need to expand beyond the traditional policy instruments and agencies to become “regulation-plus.” This also requires government agencies to draw upon expertise beyond the atmospheric science and environmental engineering.

Hospitalised Care among Larger States

Though the global spending on health is rising worldwide, people were still paying too much out of their pockets. This article examined the comparative expenditure on hospitalised care in India using three rounds of the National Sample Surveys. As there is low footfall in public facilities, the Government of India needs to take necessary measures to strengthen the public health system.

Corona in the City of Mosquitoes

When there are public health threats at the local and global levels, how do researchers decide what to prioritise?

India’s Government Health Expenditure as the Ratio to GDP

The appropriateness of the criterion that pegs the ratio of public health expenditure to the gross domestic product—which is volatile—needs a re-examination. The targets for allocation and expenditure of financial resources for health need to be based on indicators that can be monitored.

Is Contraceptive Prevalence Declining in India?

This study investigates the quality of the National Family Health Survey-4 data on contraceptive use by estimating investigator-induced bias. An outlier-bound approach was used to detect investigator bias, and contraceptive use was re-estimated adjusting for the bias in six study states. The findings suggest investigator bias at two levels: over-reporting of women as “never users” of contraception and a tendency to report sterilised women as current non-users and as cases of hysterectomy. Re-estimation of contraceptive use confirmed a declining trend in contraceptive prevalence in four study states. While the effect of the bias was moderate at the state level, it can potentially distort district-level estimates to a great extent.

Integration of Health Services for Older Persons in Urban India

This paper presents a review of the available literature on integrated care for older persons in the urban context in India. Our methodology is a systematically conducted scoping review. Our findings present the epidemiological and demographic profiles of older persons in India, the health services available to them, and the policies and programmes that govern these services. Based on our review, we provide an understanding of the gaps in the available literature and offer some policy recommendations.

Status of Women’s Reproductive Health in Bihar

Based on the National Family Health Survey data for 2015–16 and 2019–20, the article shows the precarious sexual and reproductive health of women in Bihar. While there are some improvements in this period, multiple indicators emerging from social and institutional determinants continue to show poor SRH of women in the state.

Not ‘Sailing in the Same Boat’: Why the COVID-19 Pandemic Has Been Worse for LGBTQI+ Persons in India

While the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted lives across the world, there can be no argument that the worst-affected are individuals and communities that were already vulnerable before the pandemic. The pandemic has exacerbated and made visible existing structural inequities. Like other crises, the pandemic is not neutral to gender, caste, ethnicity, class, sexuality or any other determinant of one’s social location. It is more than clear now that people already marginalised and stigmatised, are the worst hit by the pandemic lockdowns. The hit is marked on several axes —psychological, economic...

Covid-19 Pandemic: Shortages, Hesitancy and Pricing Plague India’s Covid-19 Vaccination Programme

India’s COVID-19 vaccination roll-out has been marred by challenges of shortages and hesitancy. With the new open market policy of vaccine procurement and possible entry of foreign-made vaccines, government responsibility and transparency are the need of the hour.

Political Economy of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Budgets

The paper focuses on the changing trends in budget allocations of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, especially since the structural adjustment programme that came to be implemented from 1990 and how it has affected civic services, especially health and education. The paper concludes that it has increasingly directed public resources to the private sector and reduced access adversely access to both healthcare and school education for Mumbaikars.

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