25 years of Pulse Polio Programme in India
Context : October 2019 marks 25 years of Pulse Polio Programme in India.
About polio :
Polio also known as poliomyelitis is a highly contagious viral disease caused due to the attacks the nervous system and children younger than 5 years old are more likely to contract the virus than any other group.
Poliovirus usually spreads from person to person through infected faecal matter entering the mouth. Poliovirus also spreads by food or water containing human faeces and less commonly from infected saliva.
How Pulse polio programme began :
“It all began with a single thought that if ballot papers can reach each person, two life saving drops of vaccination too can reach every child” . The success of administering polio vaccination drops to 12 lakh children through 4000 ‘polio kendras’ on 2nd October, 1994 in the city of Delhi, led to a countrywide movement and Pulse Polio Program was taken countrywide a year later in 1995.
Steps taken by the Government to maintain polio free status in India :
- Maintaining community immunity through high quality National and Sub National polio rounds each year.
- An extremely high level of vigilance through surveillance across the country for any importation or circulation of poliovirus and VDPV is being maintained. Environmental surveillance (sewage sampling) have been established to detect poliovirus transmission and as a surrogate indicator of the progress as well for any programmatic interventions strategically in Mumbai, Delhi, Patna, Kolkata Punjab and Gujarat.
- All States and Union Territories in the country have developed a Rapid Response Team (RRT) to respond to any polio outbreak in the country. An Emergency Preparedness and Response Plan (EPRP) has also been developed by all States indicating steps to be undertaken in case of detection of a polio case.
- To reduce risk of importation from neighbouring countries, international border vaccination is being provided through continuous vaccination teams (CVT) to all eligible children round the clock. These are provided through special booths set up at the international borders that India shares with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan Nepal and Myanmar.
- A rolling emergency stock of OPV is being maintained to respond to detection/importation of wild poliovirus (WPV) or emergence of circulating vaccine derived poliovirus (cVDPV).
Pulse polio programme 2019 :
- As part of the Pulse Polio Program 2019 more than 17 crore children of less than five years across the country will be administered polio drops.
- The pulse polio programme conducted every year aims to protect children from the polio disease by conducting two nationwide mass polio vaccination campaigns and two to three sub-national campaigns each year.
- The pulse polio programme 2019 is aimed at sustaining the polio eradication from the country. India was declared polio-free country in the year 2014.
- India’s last reported cases of wild polio were in West Bengal and Gujarat on 13 January 2011.
Ministry of AYUSH signed an MoU with the Ministry of Defence
Context : The Ministry of AYUSH signed an MoU with the Ministry of Defence to provide traditional medicine services at the hospitals and dispensaries of the armed forces.
MoU highlights :
- The MoU aims to support the soldiers who work in challenging environmental conditions right from glaciers of Siachin to the deserts of Thar. The climatic conditions take a toll on their physical as well as mental health.
- Ayurveda and yoga will help them to attain the best of physical and mental health. It will also improve the endurance of the soldiers. Ayurvedic medicines and panchakarma procedures are effective in treating work-related musculoskeletal disorders.
- Under the MoU, AYUSH Ministry will establish Ayurveda units at palliative care centres at the Army Research and Referral Hospital, Air Force Hospital, Hindon in Ghaziabad, and five identified ex-servicemen Contributory Health Scheme (ECHS) polyclinics in Delhi.
UN Report on lead concentration in paints
Context: As World Lead Prevention Week starts on October 20, 2019, a new United Nations (UN) report has revealed that many of its members do not have proper laws inhibiting the concentration of lead in items like paints.
Permissible limit:
- Ninety ppm is the concentration limit recommended by the Model Law and Guidance for Regulating Lead Paint published by the UNEP in 2018.
- It is the lowest and most protective regulatory limit for lead paints that has been set in India and some other countries.
Key findings:
- Only 13 countries have laws which prescribe that lead concentration should not be more than 90 particles per million (ppm).
- These 13 countries are part of 73 countries out of the UN’s 193 members, which, as of September 30, 2019, had confirmed that they had legally binding controls on lead in paint, according to the UNEP report.
- The largest economic burden of lead exposure was borne by low- and middle-income countries.
Lead and it’s concentration:
Lead is added to paints for various reasons, including enhancing the colour, reducing corrosion and decreasing the drying time.
However, lead can reach soil, dust and groundwater through weathering or peeling of the patin.
several adverse health impacts:
- Lead exposure accounted for 1.06 million deaths from long-term effects and 24.4 million disability adjusted life years known as DALYs in 2007.
- Lead can cause permanent damage to the brain and nervous system, resulting in decreased IQ and increased behavioural problems.
- It can also cause anaemia, increase the risk of kidney damage and hypertension, and impair reproductive function.
- Young children and pregnant women (whose developing foetus can be exposed) are especially vulnerable to the adverse effects of lead. Even relatively low levels of exposure can cause serious and irreversible neurological damage.
What to be done?
- The cost of eliminating the use of lead compounds in decorative paint is much lower than removing these paints from surfaces in homes.
- By contrast, the economic cost is low for eliminating the use of lead compounds in new decorative paints. In fact, many manufacturers have already successfully reformulated their paint products to avoid the intentional addition of lead.
- According to the paint industry, the reformulation of residential and decorative paints to eliminate lead additives is feasible, and the technical and cost impacts are manageable.
Many hydropower projects could face closure
Context : Many hydropower projects that do not comply with the Centre’s ecological flow notification, which mandates that project developers ensure a minimum supply of water all through the year, could face closure.
Highlights :
- The Centre’s ecological flow notification, as it is called, came into effect last October and gave companies three years to modify their design plans, if required, to ensure that a minimum amount of water flowed during all seasons.
- The government advanced this deadline, from October 2021 to December 2019.
- There are 19 power projects along the river and of the 11 sites studied, eight were fully compliant.
- Power projects will be assessed by the CWC quarterly for compliance after December 2019.
The e-flow notification specifies the upper stretches of the Ganga — from its origins in the glaciers and until Haridwar — would have to maintain:
- 20% of the monthly average flow of the preceding 10-days between November and March, which is the dry season.
- 25% of the average during the ‘lean season’ of October, April and May.
- 30% of monthly average during the monsoon months of June-September.
Annual Crime in India Report 2017
Context : After a delay of two years the annual Crime in India Report 2017 was published by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB)
- Delhi had the highest crime rate in the country with 1050 crimes committed per one lakh of the population as listed under the Indian Penal Code
Crime against women :
- 3,59,849 cases of crime against women were reported in the country in 2017an increaseof 6% with respect to 2016 figures
- Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 56,011 cases followed by Maharashtra with 31,979 cases and West Bengal 30,002
- Majority of cases under crimes against women were registered under ‘Cruelty by Husband or his Relatives’ (27.9%) followed by ‘Assault on Women with Intent to Outrage her Modesty’ (21.7%), ‘Kidnapping & Abduction of Women’ (20.5%) and ‘Rape’ (7.0%)
- Rioting: 58,880 incidents of rioting were reported, of which the maximum incidents were reported from Bihar – 11,698, followed by Uttar Pradesh – 8,990 and Maharashtra – 7,743
- SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act: The incidents registered under this act saw an increase from 5,082 in 2016 to 5,775 in 2017.
- Incidents of crime related to Scheduled Tribes dipped from 844 in 2016 to 720 in 2017
- Kidnapping/Abduction:A total of 95,893 cases of kidnapping and abduction were registered during 2017, showing an increase of 9.0% over 2016 (88,008 cases).
- The NCRB for the first time collected data on circulationof “false/fake news and rumours.”Under the category, maximum incidents were reported from Madhya Pradesh (138), Uttar Pradesh (32) and Kerala (18).
About NCRB
- NCRB was set-up in 1986 to function as a repository of information on crime and criminals so as to assist the investigators in linking crime to the perpetrators, based on the recommendations of the National Police Commission (1977-1981)
- It was set up by merging the Directorate of Coordination and Police Computer (DCPC), Inter State Criminals Data Branch of CBI, Central Finger Print Bureau of CBI, and Statistical Branch of BPR&D.
- NCRB was entrusted with the responsibility for monitoring, coordinating and implementing the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network & Systems (CCTNS) project in the year 2009. The project connects 15000+ police stations and 6000 higher offices of police in the country.