Malnourishment, undernourished children are a reflection to a countries inabilities
As per studies, one in three of the world’s malnourished children lives in India. In India, each year, an estimated 27 million children are born—nearly 2 million of which do not survive the fifth birthday. A major cause of this is malnourishment. Over 200 million people in India do not have access to good food, and more than 40% of the children who manage to survive beyond the age five are malnourished. In India, 46% of all children below the age of three are too small for their age, 47% are underweight and at least 16% are wasted. Millions of poor children in India do not receive immunization. 79% of children under age 3 suffer from anaemia. More than 50% of children have poor learning capacity because of iodine deficiency.
Due to inadequate intake of essential nutrients, malnourished children experience several problems, including delays in development, weight-loss and other illnesses. In young children, undernourishment can greatly compromise the immune system, making them highly susceptible to infectious diseases. Besides this, it causes severe growth implications and cognitive implications like memory deficiency, low IQ scores, impaired school performance, and learning disabilities.
Underprivileged children are at a higher risk for various short-term and long-term complications as they experience several macronutrient and micronutrient deficiencies since the time of birth. In fact, it is before birth that many children and their mothers face complications, due to undernourishment. Girls are more at risk of undernourishment than boys because of their inferior social status. Every year, thousands of women die due to negligible intake of essential nutrients during pregnancy. The child and maternal mortality rates for India are amongst the highest in the world. It is believed that malnutrition alone causes 50% of infant and maternal deaths.
Couple gifts 50 acres of land in Bangalore worth Rs. 100 crores to the trust. Additional Rs 100 crore will be used towards development of Super Specialty Cashless Cancer Care Hospital for poor people
Bollywood Actor Emraan Hashmi launches the initiative
Bangalore, February 21, 2018: In a distinctive initiative, Bangalore based leading businessman Mr. Vijay Tata and his wife Mrs. Amrita Tata celebrated their daughter’s birthday in a memorable way for many. They announced the launch of their dream project, “NEW INDIA” – a self funded NGO, and gifted Rs 200 crores towards building of cashless cancer care hospital for underprivileged. Actor Emraan Hashmi graced the occasion with his presence. The unique attribute about NEW INDIA is that it is self funded and it won’t accept funds from anyone. The couple has been sheltering 40 kids for 6 years and the dream got bigger to give back to society, which gave birth to NEW INDIA.
NEW INDIA – A nonprofit organization will be completely self funded by Mr Vijay Tata & Mrs Amrita Tata and will focus on creating a new hope for the betterment of underprivileged. It aims to cater women, children, critical illness and stop-rape initiative to bring justice to rape victims and help them resurrect their lives. As the first initiative by NEW INDIA, it has already pledged 50 acres of land worth Rs 100 crores in Attibele-Anekal Road, Bangalore to the trust. Additional Rs 100 crores will be used towards construction of the super-specialty cancer care hospital. All underprivileged cancer patients from across India will be treated completely free of charge. This will be the first cashless hospital across India.
Inaugurating the NGO, Bollywood actor Mr. Emraan Hashmi said, “I have very closely seen the pain which cancer patients and their family goes through. NEW INDIA’s initiative to create new hope for poor cancer patients is worth appreciating and I am glad that individuals like Mr Vijay Tata and Mrs Amrita Tata are coming forward to take this novel step.”
On this development, Mr. Vijay Tata said, “A small step can transform into a milestone and development is always bottom-up. Our Honorable PM’s vision on healthcare for all inspired me. Our major thrust today is to work for improving the life of our people who are below poverty line. The need of the hour is to give proper guidance and free timely treatment to them. New India is a national movement and underprivileged cancer patients across India will be treated free of cost. We are sure that this cashless cancer hospital will be able to pull down the agony of these people up-to a certain extent at-least on the monetary side. A Nation’s progress lies in its ability to provide health and care to its people. A healthy India is our aim.”
Mrs Amrita Tata said, “To make a difference, one has to be the difference. Many people want to work on these lines but we are fortunate enough to execute this initiative on my daughter’s birthday. We want to give it back to the society and we have already taken the first step. NEW INDIA wishes to provide a holistic care and solution for cancer patients, which include free treatment and after care. We will also be aggressively working towards other social causes for women and children.”
The entire hospital will be of 150 beds and will be completed in different phases. The initial phase will be ready by December 2018. It will be state of the art infrastructure with renowned oncologists and consultants on board. Entire hospital project will be designed by a UK based Architect and Engineering firm, BDP, formerly known as Building Design Partnership. It’s a firm of architects and engineers employing over 900 staff in the UK and internationally. Entire project from planning to execution will be executed by BDP.
This project is founded by Vijay Tata and Amrita Tata, leading entrepreneurs from Bangalore who are on a mission to make a difference and touch lives through “NEW INDIA” and its underlying movements. This NGO aims to be working together with partners and local communities in various part of India at grass root level to understand the key issues and work in best possible way to eradicate or minimize the cause. The NGO is open for collaboration with local NGO’s and volunteers across India to make this a mass movement. Though the organization is self-funded but it seeks the support of our fellow Indians to spread the message, support our cause and volunteer in the New India Movement.
About NEW INDIA
NEW INDIA, is a self-funded NGO that is founded by two entrepreneurial and compassionate beings, viz. Vijay Tata and Amrita Tata. The NGO is a manifestation of their vision to give back to the society and the country that has given them the opportunity to dream and flourish. New India, found its root and meaning in the belief of Vijay and Amrita that we can definitely make India a country that is invincible and a beautiful haven.
Fight against Cancer
A single sitting of chemotherapy costs about INR 90,000, a full-fledged cancer treatments runs into lakhs of rupees. What makes the matters worse is availing any kind of treatment for the poor is a challenge. They either face shortage of quality care, or shortage of money or often are deprived from timely care. New India solemnly commits itself to the fight against cancer by ensuring to take strong steps in making sure that cancer treatment and care is available to all the needy and poor for free. Because with Cancer what kills faster is the cost associated to it. NEW INDIA already has earned itself a 50-acre land worth Rs. 100 crores that will be the foundation on which a cancer hospital for the underprivileged will be built.
To learn more, visit www.thenewindia.org
Contact: Akshay Jain, Crenovate, +91 9769194979, +91 7566194979
A Happy, zealous family: Vijay Tata, Amrita Tata with their daughter.
Vijay Tata, Amrita Tata and their daughter with Actor Emraan Hashmi. Unveiling a magnum opus gift – Saanchi Advanced Cancer Care Institute.
The Tata family with Actor Emraan Hashmi – Ringing in Change.
To be poor and sick in India; nightmare!
India’s massive population is one of its largest obstacle and in this status-quo the one who suffers the most are the ones who cannot afford quality care. To be poor and sick in India spells doom. Across India the health-care sector suffers from overcrowding, overworked staff, failing equipment, sub-standard hygiene, in rural areas the doctor to patients’ ratio is as bad as 75000 to 1. Picture this, when a primary health-care centre in a village cannot adequately sustain a patient’s life, then the patient is sent to a university hospital in the region.
This means that hospital will be receiving patients from as many as 10 or more other areas with outstretched primary health-care centres. And unfortunately when the university hospital can no longer manage the patient load, the same emergency care patients are then dispatched to larger, urban hospitals, most of which are as far away as the other state. Meanwhile the state-government has failed to provide meaningful health-care to the poor.
In the name of their care commonly Yojana’s in association with insurance agencies are created and in opinion of the critics these yojana’s often fail and they merely relegate poor patients to the same facilities that are sub-standard and already failing them. “Every state has one, such Yojana but they suffer from meaninglessness, either the poor don’t know that such facilities or they get sent away and denied from medical care when they go to the hospitals.” Often poor are denied treatment due to their class, creed, religion or nature of ailment, even though it is their right.
For instance HIV patients are driven away because the staff working in these rural hospitals are under-equipped and under-educated and thus frightened. Poorer patients are more reluctant to trust government hospitals because of their reputation for class discrimination. Our health-care system is plagued by many such inequalities making it a nightmare for the poor to receive care.
India was ranked at 112 out of 190 countries by World Health Organization’s 2000 report. Only 4.2% of India’s total GDP is channelized to healthcare goods and services and care as compared to US which spends 18% of its GDP into Health-care. Further on the quality of health-care in India suffers from a huge divide between rural and urban. 70% of India’s population is rural, and this majority suffers at the hands of sub-standard health-care quality, limited or no access to hospitals and clinics, shortage of medicines and doctors and also awareness. Further on, the rural areas depend on and believe alternative medicines and are highly ignorant about varied health and hygiene hazards.
In the name of improvement some programs like the National Urban Health Mission which pays individuals for healthcare premiums, in partnership with various local private partners, which have proven ineffective to date. Urban on the other hand suffers at the hands of excess but not available to the poor due to the privatisation and profit making attitude. The urban centres have numerous private hospitals and clinics which provide quality healthcare. These centres have better doctors, access to preventive medicine, and quality clinics which are a result of better profitability for investors compared to the not-so-profitable rural areas. It is this sheer divide and attitude of making medicine a profit centre that is leading to numerous issues. It is about time we take health-care seriously.
