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India Virtually Eliminates Tetanus as a Killer

nytimes.com

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Re: India Virtually Eliminates Tetanus as a Killer

#31

Post by praneshp »

jessaustin wrote: post #25
adventured wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No people don't say the same thing about California. In California it's a rare occurrence among the 38 million people that live there, caused by a tiny fraction of the population - almost exclusively a subset of the homeless. In India, it's ~45% of 1.2 billion people.

...almost exclusively a subset of the homeless. And late-night alcohol drinkers! Maybe you've never done it, but lots of people, of both genders, have.

Yes. I live in downtown San Jose, and well-dressed folks (ie clearly not homeless) do it outside the apartment community I live in. I've taken pictures a couple of times, but never sent them to the cops for fear of ruining their lives. (I've heard of people getting charged with "lewd" behavior and being put on sex offenders lists)

Re: India Virtually Eliminates Tetanus as a Killer

#32

Post by titomc »

PhearTheCeal wrote: post #12

Now if only they could eliminate defecating in the streets. [1] In India, nearly half of the population - more than 590m people - relieve themselves in the open [1] http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33980904

India is an extremely large country with democracy + huge diversity in terms of culture. India will slowly but surely get there.

Re: India Virtually Eliminates Tetanus as a Killer

#33

Post by carrotleads »

merpnderp wrote: post #21
nostrebored wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. Fraud is terrible in both cases, and should be a known factor so that we can evaluate how to procede. For instance, aid to Sub-Saharan Africa constitutes roughly 70% of the budget of SSA countries. Illicit outflows of that aid money is increasing at a rate of 20% per year. I'm struggling to find the data about how much aid actually reaches the intended location, but it's significantly lower than one would ho…

I think you've laid out why corruption and fraud should always be a high priority to fight even when they are a low cost. Fraud is corrosive, and when left unchecked will expand. If a dentist can get away with 50 fake treatments at a nursing home one year, why would he shoot for 100 fake treatments the next, thus doubling his portion of the fraud. Which is exactly what you've described in Africa. If a general can div…

I would then suggest its best to highlight possible corruption instances rather than pursue them..

that way the corrupt people see it in their interest to pull back rather than increase...

Obviously it needs to be paired with some instances being pursued to its logical conclusions and done so publicly.

Re: India Virtually Eliminates Tetanus as a Killer

#34

Post by aussieindian »

hackuser wrote: post #3

> The program succeeded despite corruption. The Times of India recently reported that an audit had found clearly fraudulent payments — including some to a 60-year-old woman registered as having been pregnant five times in 10 months. I'm uncomfortable with the meme of corruption in public welfare programs (and I may be overreacting to the author's implication, but I still think my point applies more generally). There…

>> I'm uncomfortable with the meme of corruption in public welfare programs

Its a story about a developing country.. it would be a brave editor who approves a piece without the story sticking to the dominant narrative about the country.

Not sure if there are any Journo's who can comment on my insinuation but that is how i see many media pieces. not sure if it is forced by editor or comes from a journo's own biases.

Re: India Virtually Eliminates Tetanus as a Killer

#35

Post by harshnisar »

neduma wrote: post #15
PhearTheCeal wrote: post #12

Now if only they could eliminate defecating in the streets. [1] In India, nearly half of the population - more than 590m people - relieve themselves in the open [1] http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33980904

This really bothers me. Any ideas to cure this issue with local/government support. I would like to explore more about current solutions in terms of what worked and what not worked so far (with numbers, of course). Thinking of starting some kind of kickstarter campaign to solve this in few villages and let the community/government to replicate this model to everywhere in India.

Here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulabh_International

Re: India Virtually Eliminates Tetanus as a Killer

#36

Post by th0waway »

th0waway wrote: post #11
sophacles wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fraud should be a concern, however at some points, the attempts to eliminate it outweigh (in terms of cost and effort) the effect of its existence. At that point it becomes a morality issue rather than a practical one. For comparison, I wonder if the CBO was given full investigatory power into private insurance, would they discover a higher or lower fraud percentage? It would not surprise me if they were higher, and…

I would expect it to be the reverse: there is no incentive for government programs to root out fraud, if they fall short, they just raise taxes. For private companies - if they are being defrauded, it directly affects their bottom line, and the bottom line of their executives (who would be VERY interested to make sure bonuses increase). If we are talking about fraud within the company/government, I would expect the s…

wow - really? Negative points for pointing out that the government has no financial incentive to root out fraud? Must be government shills.

Re: India Virtually Eliminates Tetanus as a Killer

#37

Post by palmer_eldritch »

praneshp wrote: post #31
jessaustin wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...almost exclusively a subset of the homeless. And late-night alcohol drinkers! Maybe you've never done it, but lots of people, of both genders, have.

Yes. I live in downtown San Jose, and well-dressed folks (ie clearly not homeless) do it outside the apartment community I live in. I've taken pictures a couple of times, but never sent them to the cops for fear of ruining their lives. (I've heard of people getting charged with "lewd" behavior and being put on sex offenders lists)

Oh, so you've got a collection of pictures of people relieving themselves in the streets?

Nothing strange at all, congrats!

Re: India Virtually Eliminates Tetanus as a Killer

#38

Post by jessaustin »

palmer_eldritch wrote: post #37
praneshp wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. I live in downtown San Jose, and well-dressed folks (ie clearly not homeless) do it outside the apartment community I live in. I've taken pictures a couple of times, but never sent them to the cops for fear of ruining their lives. (I've heard of people getting charged with "lewd" behavior and being put on sex offenders lists)

Oh, so you've got a collection of pictures of people relieving themselves in the streets? Nothing strange at all, congrats!

Yes he might ought to worry about getting on one of those lists himself...
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