Vulnerability of Construction Workers During COVID-19: Tracking Welfare Responses and Challenges.

This paper takes stock of the cash assistance provided by the government to construction workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the role of the state construction welfare board has been crucial, some existing issues related to boards and challenges emerged during the crisis have also been discussed. Results show that cash benefit through direct benefit transfer has partially helped workers to overcome their financial distress, but 65% workers did not receive any benefit due to various issues related to registration and seeding of bank accounts with Aadhar.

Notes From the Field: Are Rural Medical Practitioners in India Competent?

In India, rural medical practitioners (RMPs) practice allopathic, homeopathic, and other modern systems of medicine without formal medical training. However, the quality of treatment offered remains questionable. The present study systematically examines the knowledge, practices, and competencies of the RMPs.

Urban health in India: who is responsible?

Urban health has received relatively less focus compared with rural health in India, especially the health of the urban poor. Rapid urbanization in India has been accompanied by an increase in population in urban slums and shanty towns, which are also very inadequately covered by basic amenities, including health services. The paper presents existing and new evidence that shows that health inequities exist between the poor and the non-poor in urban areas, even in better-off states in India.

Location and vocation: why some government doctors stay on in rural Chhattisgarh, India.

We conducted a qualitative research study in Chhattisgarh State, India, to explore why some qualified medical practitioners decide to stay on in government rural service. The fieldwork consisted of in-depth interviews with 37 practitioners who had an established record of rural service, and data were analyzed using the 'framework' approach for applied policy research. Study participants cited complexes of reasons for staying on, including geographical and ethnic (tribal) affinities, rural upbringing, availability of schools, personal values of service, professional interests, co-location with spouses, and relations with co-workers.

A Qualitative Mediation Study to Evaluate a School-Based Tobacco Prevention Program in India (Project MYTRI).

Causal mediating processes were examined using qualitative methods to evaluate a tobacco-use prevention program for adolescents in India, Project MYTRI (Mobilizing Youth for Tobacco-Related Initiatives in India). Interviews were conducted with Project MYTRI leaders and staff persons. The focus of the interviews was to learn about the program implementation and to characterize how Project MYTRI classroom sessions altered student-level psychosocial risk factors (mediators) to prevent or reduce tobacco use among students in intervention schools in Delhi and Chennai.