Nada India Foundation News update

by   Suneel Vatsyayan Posted on May 16 '19, in  Alcohol's Harm To Others ,  IOGT ,  Obstacle To Development ,  Policy ,  Prevention ,  Recovery ,  Research ,  Sustainable Development Alcohol: major obstacle to development The situation of women’s safety here in Bihar was such that women would not step outside their homes beyond 6 pm. Alcohol fueled domestic violence had been accepted inside the homes to such an extent that there had been about 85 women in the village who committed suicide seeing no escape.” Ritu Jaiswal, a local politician in Bihar  explains how alcohol hinders sustainable development  in Bihar, India. Already many years before, in March 2013, Bihari women started protesting alcohol fueled harm in public. “Humari aabroo ki keemat pe sharab ka dhandha nahi chalega.” (The sale of liquor will not continue at the cost of our honour.) The chant echoed through Konar, a village near the town of Sasaram in...

With India having the largest number of   Tuberculosis  patients in the world, we definitely encounter high proportion of alcohol and drug users with TB (approx. 2 in 10 alcohol and drug users are diagnosed with TB). At present India does'nt have any screening mechanisms in place to identify asymptomatic TB patients at the drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres but data is collected on the basis of self reporting and screening of symptomatic patients. Any patient at the drug /alcohol rehabilitation centre showing symptoms of TB is referred for TB testing and if identified as TB positive these patients are sent for TB treatment but are never usually followed up or retained for alcohol de-addiction treatment. The patients are sent back home and don't continue their stay at the center potentially due to lack of infection control facilities at the rehabilitation centre. Even recently at the community conversation for NCD voices on Our Views, Our Voices" conducted by Nada ...

By Suneel Vatsyayan, Drug-related harm: personal and societal Recently, I attended the cremation of Suresh*. He died prematurely because of cardiac arrest at the age of 49 leaving behind his wife and two sons. He had earlier lost his friend Pawan* at the age of 39 because of lung cancer. Both Suresh and his friend had been drug free and physically healthy for 24 and 13 years respectively. Suresh and Pawan were treated for their multiple drug use starting with marijuana at Navjyoti Drug Rehabilitation Center, a program funded by the Ministry of Social Justice. In Delhi, Suresh had been treated for his substance use problems 17 times prior to the last treatment in different nursing homes and NGO-run programs. Later on both Suresh and Pawan were involved in conducting a peer-led drug rehabilitation center in the outskirts of Delhi. Both continued to attend Narcotic Anonymous self-help groups, regularly run in Delhi. These N.A. groups have a substantial role and have greatly contrib...

Nada India supports the move of the Indian Government that favours holding celebrities liable for appearing in misleading ads and endorsing bad products. Guidelines should include surrogate alcohol advertising and brand endorsement as well. The government is likely to bring out guidelines for celebrities who endorse products, Suneel Vatsyayan, The endorsement by celebrities of products can have serious adverse effects on health –  for example in the case of MAGGI and school children. Maggi product “2 minute noodle”  (that is popular with school kids) was  found to be containing Mono Sodium Glutamate (MSG)  and lead higher than the permissible limits. The samples collected by Uttar Pradesh Food  Safety and Drug Administration proved that MAGGI’s advertising messages, driven home by  Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit – falsely boasted “nutritional value” of the noodles. The common people incr...

Importing Alcohol Harm Via Diplomats And Big Alcohol Nada India network members fully support the enforcement of the law on labelling on liquor imported from other countries to India. Email Share on Twitter Share on Facebook In India, alcohol is not as common as in the Western world (remember: Europe is the region in the world that consumes alcohol most heavily.). Alcohol in India is a controlled and luxury item unlike packaged water or juice. But also India is burdened by alcohol harm and therefore we advocate for better regulations on local and state level as well as for a national alcohol policy. Some regulations are in place already. For instance regulations concerning labelling and packaging. The bottle and package design gives the alcohol product a deceptive identity instead of introducing the customer to the ingredients honestly. Alcoholic beverages are not classified as single ingredient foods and so the manufacturer in foreign countries needs to follow the label...

Suneel Vatsyayan Value Young India: Make Strong And Healthy Policies Category:   Alcohol Industry ,  Development ,  Global ,  Marketing ,  Non-Communicable Diseases ,  Policy ,  Prevention ,  Youth Email Share on Twitter Share on Facebook Designing strong and healthy policy measures to prevent  Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs, lifestyle related diseases) is a step towards community well-being which can facilitate young people to make healthy choices in a market-driven and compelling environment. Every third person in India is a youth. By 2020, the average individual in the county will be 29 years old, making India the youngest country in the world. India is set to become the world’s youngest country with 64 percent of the population in the working age group. And young India is at  risk .  Young people in general think that consuming an alcoholic beverage casually after work or at dinner is...

Brand new blogs dealing with: Human Rights, especially the rights of children and women's rights. Alcohol Policy, especially developments in South Africa, Ghana and Uganda. Big Alcohol operations in Ireland and around the world, by the example of Diageo. Narcotic Drugs Policy processes on global scale, especially fighting for civil society involvement. In this Global Voices Update< http://www.iogt.org/ world-wide/ > we bring you voices from around the world who took a closer look at a number of exciting and hot issues: - Maik looks at what the global alcohol industry is doing to drive up alcohol harm< http://www.iogt.org/ policyofficerupdate/388/how- big-alcohol-manufactures-more- occasions-for-alcohol-use/ > in order to earn more money; - Rogers looks at how alcohol policy developments turn out in Uganda, with a brand new Status Report< http://www.iogt.org/ africaupdate/69/2nd-state-of- alcohol-and-drug-abuse-report- 2013/ > on alcohol in Uganda and David looks...