Nada India Foundation News update

New Alliance To Prevent NCDs In India by   Suneel Vatsyayan Posted on April 28, 2016, in  Prevention ,  IOGT ,  Well-being ,  Civil Society The life stories of two “Dayanands” reveal their indomitable courage. While the first Dayanand from rural Delhi died of cancer at the age of 39, the second Dayanand from East Delhi died of AIDS at the age of 46. What connects them was their use of alcohol, tobacco and other drug use; major risk factors of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Both the Dayanands had graduated from, what we call ‘The University of Pain’ and time and again had faced social rejection, stigma, and discrimination. They both volunteered to become peer support counselors and worked hard in empowering their peers. The Dayanand who died from cancer survived with two boys and his ageing mother. (To watch their stories click  here ) Science knows about the correlation of cancer and alcohol use since the 1980s. The International Agen...

                                                                        Anil Sethi, a retired army general in his 60s, was an alcoholic. After a paralytic attack, he gave up drinking and instead found a substitute in Facebook. He would spend four to five hours a day on it. He became detached from his family. His social life shrunk.  Worried, his family brought him to Vatsyayan for counselling, who found that his dependency on social media was no less than his dependency on alcohol. Shakya Mitra, April 23, 2016  After nine years of being a heavy Facebook user, Kishore Dhiman suddenly deactivated his account. The 32-year-old Delhi resident says that the long hours spent on the social networking site were beginning to take a toll on his mental health. The absence of human touch on Facebook was slowly...

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...

In an effort to prevent and control non-communicable diseases in India, the global NCD Alliance convened a consultation of civil society organizations in July 2015. Following this, an Indian network called Healthy India Alliance has been announced.  The Healthy India Alliance  invites you  for the  first National  CSO Consultation  on Non Communicable  Diseases (NCDs) in India  from 25th to 27th April, 2016 at PHD Chamber of Commerce,  August Kranti Marg,  New Delhi. Click here to read the details of the   Healthy India Alliance National Consultation. Download the Healthy India Alliance_NC_Registration Form. For additional details, please contact Prachi Kathuria at prachi@hriday-shan.org or call on +91-11 41031191.

Nada India has been working on prevention and control of Non communicable Diseases at community level with a focus on stress , alcohol and tobacco prevention .This year, Nada volunteered to join other 18 civil societies  to form Healthy India Alliance for the prevention and control of NCDs in India. Genesis of the Healthy India Alliance  The global NCD Alliance (founded by four International NGO federations representing the four main NCDs-cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer and chronic respiratory disease) and WHO South-East Asia Regional Office convened aConsultation of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) from the Region in July 2015, to deliberate on priorities and strategies to advance NCD prevention and control in the Region and the role that CSOs play in this sphere.   As a follow up to this SEAR CSO Consultation, the NCD Alliance convened an Indian Civil Society Round-table to deliberate on a collaborative CSO ...

Heady childhood Marijuana addiction is coming out of universities and into schools with children as young as 11 experimenting with it Veenu Sandhu   March 19, 2016 "Doctor, have you tried marijuana?" "No" "Then how do you know it is bad?" Brahmdeep Sindhu, senior psychiatrist at the Civil Hospital in Gurgaon, was stumped when a 14-year-old from a prominent school threw this question at him. "The child then went to great lengths, quoting blogs he had read on the internet, to convince me why he, many of his classmates and some of his juniors, children as young as 12, thought it was harmless, even beneficial, to smoke up." Every month, 15 to 20 new cases of schoolchildren, boys and girls, are brought by their parents to Sindhu for counselling. They are all hooked to cannabis: often marijuana  (the leaf of the plant) and sometimes hashish (extracted from the plant's resin). Far away from Gurgaon, in the fields past Navi Mu...

“ Hugs—not drugs —are what we must promote,” Mr. Vatsyayan said. “We are all living in our own islands,” he stated, “disconnected from everyone  else. We will have to create a world in which everyone can win.” “If we give importance to participation rather than competition,” Mr. Vatsyayan  explained, “then everyone can win. If you add competition then chances of drug use will increase. Inclusive  approach is important. Isolation can lead to addiction. We need preventive health  system with an inclusive approach.” Mr. Vatsyayan pointed out that: “People in the audience who watch you play become inspired to play and gives birth to a potential player. If we let the audience join us, they may not get addicted. Rahgiri is an amazing example where there is community engagement, and there are no organizers, no medals. It is an inclusive approach.” Maidan Summit 2015 was organised by Magic Bus (NGO)