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The Asia Society Guide to
Health and Education NGOs in India

Health NGOs in India

Family planning
With a population hovering just above the one billion mark, India is the second most populous country in the world, with the negative effects of overpopulation imposing on the education, health, and development sectors. Cultural factors like pressure to have male children, the economic importance of child labor and religious restrictions on sexual education are just some of the factors influencing this high population growth rate.

Some say the rise in population is no cause for alarm, while experts stress the importance of immediate controls on population growth and the depletion of basic resources from the environment. Another reoccurring debate surrounding issues of population control is the relationship between birth control advocacy and the cultural and religious values of local populations. The role of the government has also been of major concern, with some advocates stressing the need for state-sponsored sterilization and others stressing women's choices.

Statistics and Background Information

Annual Exponential Growth Rates
Figures on growth rates by state from the Indian Census.

UNFPA State of World Population Report 2000
Includes statistics on world population and actions for population control.

National Family Health Survey
For a national survey of family planning methods and unmet needs, see the Government of India, Department of Family Welfare, National Family Health Survey.

Sex Selection in India
The Harvard School of Public Health, in this collection of articles, reports on family planning, abortion, and the status of girl children.

Global Reproductive Health Forum South Asia
The Global Reproductive Health Forum South Asia Site from the Harvard School of Public Health provides a wealth of resources, forums, discussion lists and cutting edge research on reproductive health in India.

India Hits the Billion Mark
An article, dated May 11, 2000, from the BBC.

Demand for Family Planning Among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes
This article by T. K. Roy and Balram Paswan provides an overview of reproductive health issues particular to these disadvantaged communities.

Debates

Has Family Planning Failed?
This article from the Times of India lays out plans to have the Indian population under control by 2040.

Why Women Choose Sterilization in Rural South India
For a culturally informed study of sterilization in South India, check out the Population Council's site.

Tamil Nadu: Sex and the City
This article, "Tamil Nadu: Sex and the City," from the 10 May 2000 International Planned Parenthood Federation newsletter, describes the efforts of the Chennai Sexual Health Project to educate teenagers about sex and birth control.





Organizations

UNFPA - Asia and the Pacific
This is the homepage of the United Nations Population Fund, Asia. As the population control wing of the United Nations, UNFPA is the most famous and respected international organization advocating and providing modern methods of birth control on the subcontinent.

Family Planning Association of India
The Family Planning Association of India is a national organization that is over 50 years old, focusing on educating youth about sexuality and distributing birth control.

Occupational and Environmental Health
The issues of environmental and occupational health are inextricably linked, with rapid industrialization contributing to widespread environmental degeneration and public health problems. While the relationship between pollution and public health violations have been given more attention since the tragic Bhopal disaster of 1984, much still remains to be done. Although environmental regulations exist in Indian law books, they are seldom enforced. Given lax enforcement of labor laws and environmental disregard on the part of factory owners, many Indian workers are subject to health risks as a direct consequence of their jobs. Particularly alarming is the link between byssinosis, a fatal lung disease, and textile workers, half of which are affected by the disease. In addition, child laborers are particularly susceptible to the health effects of substandard working conditions, including polluted lungs, exposure to toxic fuels, and muscular disorders in the hands from textile factories.

NGOs agree that while eradication of poverty is at the center of environmental protection, the poor are not the main cause of environmental crises. Rather, it is the rich who use poor laborers for the purpose of deforestation. In addition, multinational corporations are moving into countries where the enforcement of environmental laws is weaker than that in Western industrialized countries, thereby taking advantage of such leniency.

Articles and Information

Byssinosis in a Bombay textile mill
An article on byssinosis (the disabling occupational disease caused by cotton dust) from LTM Medical College in Bombay.

Bhopal Disaster
This informed study of the tragic aftermath of the Bhopal Disaster points out that there are slow but steady environmental disasters happening all over India.

Union Carbide Gas Release in Bhopal, India
This site presents clear facts and data on the Bhopal tragedy, including recommendations and solutions.

Centre for Science and Environment
The Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi provides great background information on the connections between the environment, public health, education and industry.


Organizations

Mill Kamdar Swasthya Suraksha Mandal ("Mill Workers Health Protection Organization")

The Mill Kamdar Swasthya Suraksha Mandal provides healthcare information and assistance to textile workers in Ahmedabad, emphasizing early diagnosis of byssinosis, a fatal lung disease that affects fifty percent of textile workers. It has spearheaded one of India's first citizen-led occupational health campaigns, resulting in the creation of both a governmental Byssinosis Control Program and a network of doctors and factory inspectors who educate workers about the disease. By suggesting cost-effective methods of improving the working conditions of textile employees, the organization effects real change in the daily health and quality of life of factory workers. A growing organization, the Mandal has over forty volunteers and is branching out to other textile communities in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Founder Haushala Prasad Mishra is an Ashoka Fellow.


Occupational Health and Safety Centre
The Occupational Health and Safety Centre in Bombay aims to assist workers and employees in their efforts to bring in a safer and healthier work place, focusing on municipal sewerage workers and textile workers.


Organ Trade
While the Indian government made for-profit organ trade illegal in 1997, kidney trade is stronger than ever in India. Many poor villagers sell their kidneys to get out of debt, to pay for everyday living expenses, or for their daughters' dowries. Along with India, China, Brazil and Thailand are all infamous for their roles in organ black market, with China notoriously selling the organs of executed criminals.

Human Rights and Health issues

India Kidney Trade
This site provides comprehensive background information on the issue.

Extreme Research
This site features Berkeley Professor Lawrence Cohen who studies the anthropological implications of the kidney trade in India.

The new cannibalism
This article from the New Internationalist investigates the international organ trade.