India joins global movement to raise awareness on Neglected Tropical Diseases
Darpan News Desk IANS, 01 Feb, 2022 12:30 PM
New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS) Observing the 3rd World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Day as a key moment to highlight the global community's commitment to ending these, India joined close to 40 other nations to illuminate iconic landmarks to raise awareness.
This year, India lit up the New Delhi Railway Station in purple and orange hues to mark the occasion.
At a virtual event organised by National Centre for Vector Borne Diseases Control (NCVBDC) to observe World NTD Day, Joint Secretary, Health, Dr Harmeet Singh Grewal, said that the aim of illuminating the iconic New Delhi Railway Station was to generate awareness about NTDs in the visiting public and showcase progress and achievements towards their elimination.
Emphasising on creating a people's movement to eliminate the NTDs, he said: "There is a need for a behavioural change. We must fight it together and engage school children, social workers, activists etc. to create a mass movement to elimination NTDs."
NTDs are caused mostly by a variety of pathogens including viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi, and toxins which affect over 1.7 billion people globally. They are called 'neglected' because they are almost absent from the global health agenda of the developed countries and are associated with stigma and social exclusion.
Lauding India's efforts towards eliminating these diseases, NCVBDC Director, Dr Tanu Jain, said: "Most people don't know about NTDs because these diseases effect the poor and marginalised communities. We need to elevate messaging about NTDs and highlight the positive, ambitious, and winnable NTD goals by focusing on the NTD elimination target. This would happen through close coordination between all stakeholders."
In Jharkhand, Gujarat, and Karnataka too, iconic landmarks and monuments were illuminated as part of their commitment to eliminate NTDs. In Jharkhand, the renowned Rajendra Circle in Ranchi and Clock Tower in Godda district were lit up in pink and orange colours. The office building of the Department of Health and Family Welfare in Bengaluru was also illuminated to mark the occasion.
Patra condemned the recent incident in which a nine-year-old Dalit girl was allegedly gang-raped, murdered and then cremated by her attackers in South West Delhi on Sunday evening.
Despite mobile phones are prohibited inside a meeting room where prisoners meet with the visitors, this incident has brought forth the lapses on the part of the jail administration.
In a bid to highlight the rising air pollution as well as the serious health hazards faced by the people, a group of organisations, think tanks and civil society groups have joined hands to form 'Clean Air Punjab'.
Few hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on the flood situation in the state, the latter wrote a letter to the Prime Minister, describing the flood as a ‘man made one', alleging that the "unprecedented release of water from the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) dams Panchet, Maithon and Tenughat" is responsible for the situation.
The incident took place on Sunday night and the victim's family members have alleged that the accused stuffed cloth into the girl's mouth and raped her.
