About a month ago, multiple news outlets in India reported on a rather troubling proposal – the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), India’s national drug regulatory authority, was apparently likely to ban the sale of over-the-counter hormonal contraceptives, including emergency contraceptive (EC) pills across the country, b...

On 31st July 2023, Chetan Singh, a 33-year-old constable of the Railway Protection Force in India, opened fire killing four men on a Mumbai-bound train. Three of the four victims were Muslim men sporting markers of their Muslim identity. The fourth was his superior – an assistant sub-inspector – with whom the assailant had had an altercation. ...

On 5th September 2021, over 500,000 farmers gathered in Muzzafarnagar, a town located 130 km from New Delhi, to protest a set of three legislations or “farm laws”, passed by the government last September. This gathering or “Mahapanchayat” is the latest in what can be considered one of the longest and most powerful mass mobilizations...

Last year, when Labour Day rolled around at the height of summer, I wrote about how we were witnessing one of the most horrific migrations of workers across India, and the draconian, despairing changes that were taking place in labour policies. While that was largely the result of apathetic and hasty policy decisions and political one-upmanship...

Last week, a “rate” list from a leading for-profit private hospital in Delhi went viral on social media, probably because of the sheer obscenity of the charges that it displayed. The costs for a bed, as per the list, ranged from Rs. 25,000 (about $330) per day in a general ward (no private room, without isolation or ventilator) to Rs. 72,00...

Spending “May Day” by myself at home this year, seemed very strange. It was the first time in a very long time, that I did not attend some sort of protest or event of resistance. But I do not think there has ever been a time in my life when concerns of workers’ rights have been more pronounced than they are in India today. Like most of th...

Over the past few weeks, I have been following, with some discomfort occasionally, the conversations around women’s leadership in global health, taking place in the context of the Women Leaders in Global Health Conference (WLGH) at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. We must be concerned that most of the conversation on gender ...

In the year 2017, “Gender equality” was undoubtedly one of the hot topics that was discussed and debated both on online spaces as well as in global events. As the year closed, the appointment of the UNICEF’s new executive director Henrietta Fore and 7 new women to WHO’s leadership team drew wide attention and accolades in global developm...

Last week at the UHC Forum 2017 in Tokyo, the Health Systems Governance Collaborative and the UHC Partnership launched the Bold Moves Campaign and issued a manifesto calling for a “radical rethink” of governance and collaboration strategies. Emboldened and inspired by the manifesto, we decided right away to answer the call, and spin some ide...

On 22nd and 23rd November 2017 at a special session of the Executive Board (EB) held in Geneva, WHO’s new Director-General (Dr. Tedros) presented and received comments from the Executive Board and other Member States on the organization’s draft strategy document – the 13th General Programme of Work (GPW). The GPW is meant to be a roadmap f...

“Class”- a word that (most) researchers are more than reluctant to employ. Don’t get me wrong, analysis of health inequalities based on income, poverty, socioeconomic gradients and so on abound. Sophisticated statistical tools are being used to show us the obvious – that health outcomes are poor for those with fewer resources, no matter ...

Every year, World Population Day (11 July) serves as a rallying point for strengthening the demand for access to contraceptives for women and girls, worldwide. Being able to control one’s fertility, is undoubtedly one of the most significant aspects of women’s control over their own destinies. Family planning and gender equality go hand in h...

There has been a lot of attention on women’s maternal health, not least because of the MDG targets, and this will continue with the SDGs. But how much of this work should be focused on bringing men into the world of maternal health?  At one level, men are often the ones who control women’s access to health seeking and health care. At anot...