Highlights:
- Additional 75,000 MBBS seats by 2029: but Doctors Protest against serving the country.
- Indians eating more but not better: Rising micronutrients deficiency, & obesity crisis.
- Supplements cannot replace real nutrients – government got some policies like rice fortification wrong.
- Food Products to get stricter checks; FSSAI makes scientific evidence mandatory.
- Water borne tragedy in Indore: 8 deaths and many hospitalizations.
Website: https://uho.org.in
Download: https://uho.org.in/nl/2026-01-02-newsletter.pdf (copy and paste the link)
Dr. Amitav Banerjee, Chairperson of the Universal Health Organisation (UHO), presented the latest newsletter addressing four crucial topics. These topics relate to health, nutrition, food security, and a recent outbreak of illness.
Additional 75,000 MBBS seats by 2029: but Doctors Protest against serving the country
According to a Press Information Bureau Report, the Union Health Minister, Shri J P Nadda, underscored Rapid Growth in Medical Colleges from 387 to 819 and MBBS Seats from 51,000 to 1.28 Lakh during the past 11 years. He also announced that 75,000 additional MBBS Seats to Be Added by 2029 to strengthen the healthcare workforce in the country. This will generate over 2 lakhs MBBS doctors every year.
If we think this will really strengthen the health workforce in the country and provide the much needed primary and secondary care to the underserved rural population of our country where over 70% of our population dwell, we are in for a rude shock. Majority of these MBBS doctors will not reciprocate the gesture and would opt for higher specializations and super-specializations to get employed in big cities or go abroad.
This attitude is evident from the protests by the Junior Doctors’ Association in Jharkhand against the five-year bond service policy announced by the Jharkhand Health Ministry. The Junior Doctors Association (JDA), said that the government was attempting to place the burden of a failing healthcare system on MBBS graduates. “To cover up the failure of the health system, the government is trying to impose a burden on MBBS students…”
According to the JDA, medical education does not end with MBBS degree, but further studies and specialization and super-specializations are required to become a complete doctor. The JDA also stated that other states are reducing the bond period for MBBS doctors.
UHO recommends that there should be an uniform bond period throughout the country particularly for MBBS graduates passing out from Government Medical Colleges who get highly subsidized education at the tax-payers expense. They owe it to the country to reciprocate and serve the government health services for a minimum period. The belief that one can be a complete doctor only after specialization and super-specialization is also misplaced as over specializations produce fragmented doctors while the MBBS has a better opportunity to gain on hands experience by serving for five years seeing all types of cases and much higher number of patients compared to the specialist or superspecialist who are seeing only cases of the part of the body they have specialised in.
On their part the Government should improve the service conditions of MBBS doctors, bring their salary on par with the specialist doctors, provide latest medical equipments and fill all vacancies of paramedical staff in primary health centres, community health centres and district hospitals, decent accommodation, education facilities for children, and reservations in post graduate seats after bond service. Short of these many of the vacancies in government hospitals will lie vacant as brought out in the Comptroller Auditor General Report (CAG Report). Piecemeal solutions by only increasing MBBS seats (50% of them in private medical colleges, which reveal the commercial interests), will not work or serve the underserved people of the country deprived of primary and secondary level health care which can be provided adequately by MBBS doctors. The junior doctors should protest on these points instead of shirking their responsibility of serving their people.
Indians eating more but not better: Rising micronutrients deficiency, & obesity crisis
Good nutrition is a basic requirement for good health. It is not only quantity of food that matters but also the quality and balance as well.
According to a panel of nutrition experts, in spite of food surplus in recent years, the country is getting sicker. Calorie consumption is rising but micro-nutrient deficiency, obesity and food related illnesses are rising. These in turn affect long term economic growth and public health unless policies to address these are urgently enforced.
According to the expert panel, post independence, the focus was on calorie sufficiency for survival by tackling under-nutrition. The challenge today is to cope with over-nutrition coupled with micronutrient deficiency due to choice of the wrong kind of foods.
Among adults, the obesity has risen by 20 to 30 percent with the highest increase among young people among their 20s and 30s.
While the report say that under-nutrition has decrease by 20 to 30 percent, we feel the poor would have become poorer post-pandemic due to the collateral harms of the pandemic measures, and this under-nutrition reduction may not be across all social classes, particularly among the under-five children. According to the National Family Health Survey – 5, (NFHS-5), there are high rates of stunting (35.5%), underweight (32.1%), and wasting (19.3%) and the under-fives in the country. The majority of the malnourished children are among the lower socioeconomic classes.
On the other hand, the burgeoning middle class is struggling with obesity and associated disorders due to over-nutrition and unhealthy food choices.
Among the micronutrient deficiencies, iron, zinc and vitamins affected 20 to 30 percent of people between 10 to 20 years of age rising further in late adult life. Half of Indian children suffer from one micronutrient deficiency and one-third suffers from multiple deficiencies. The most common micronutrient and vitamin deficiencies are B12, folate, iron, magnesium and vitamin D.
Obesity is a rising concern. UNICEF projections show that India could have 27 million overweight children by 2030. This is due to unbalanced carbohydrate overconsumption, 62% of the share of total calories, while protein contributing only 12%. According to the India Diabetes Study, even a 5% intake in protein could significantly delay the onset of diabetes and pre-diabetes. Macronutrient deficiency of protein should first be managed by wholesome food, preferably organic, to fill the gap and not with synthetic supplements. Only in refractory cases supervised supplementation should be considered.
Erosion of traditional cooking knowledge, driven by changing lifestyles and declining home cooking contribute to the problem.
The solution lies in nutritional literacy, awareness, and return to traditional Indian diets, rich in whole grains, pulses, millets, nuts, seeds, fruits and vegetables.
Supplements cannot replace real nutrients – government got some policies like rice fortification wrong
In another panel “Supplements vs Real Nutrition: Are we getting it wrong?” experts stressed why whole foods outperform isolated nutrient supplements which should not replace the need for wholesome and balanced nutrition in the long term. Experts warned that overreliance on pills, powders and supplements are undermining the country’s nutritional wellbeing.
In this context, the government’s scheme of fortification of rice with iron and other minerals is an ill conceived, unscientific measure at huge cost to the public exchequer. The UHO had reported this in an earlier newsletter. The UHO characterized this approach as a “short term strategy” that primarily benefited commercial interests rather than addressing food insecurity.
Why did the government ignore strong evidence? A collective of investigative journalists have found the answer. They have unearthed strong conflicts of interests involving a Dutch firm and a number of NGO’s funded by companies with commercial interests. Follow the money instead of the science seems to be the strategy to address major public health issues.
Food Products to get stricter checks; FSSAI makes scientific evidence mandatory
In a welcome move, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), will with immediate effect ask for evidence of safety and standards of any new food products. Detailed information on various parameters will be required to be submitted by the manufacturers before their products are approved. These would include the composition, how much Indians consume the product, and long term safety data.
UHO concurs with this proactive action on part of the regulator and insists that the regulations are implemented in letter and spirit.
Water borne tragedy in Indore: 8 deaths and many hospitalizations
Indore, the cleanest city in India adjudged eight times in a row, is raked by an outbreak of water born infection which has claimed eight lives so far and hospitalization of over 100 more in various hospitals of the city, after allegedly consuming contaminated water in the Bhagirathpura area of the city. According to the details, the deaths were reported in between December 25 and 30.
The outbreak, which began after residents reported unusual taste and smell in municipal water supplied on December 25, has raised serious concerns about the safety of drinking water in the city.
Following the incident, Zonal In-Charge Shaligram Sitole and Assistant Engineer Yogesh Joshi were suspended. Additionally, PHE In-Charge Subnaitri Shubham Srivastava was also relieved of his duties.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav expressed grief over the deaths and announced that the state government would provide Rs 2 lakh to the families of the deceased and bear the medical expenses of those affected.
Residents alleged that they and their family members fell ill after consuming Narmada river water supplied through municipal tap connections.
UHO recommends that there is no short cuts to public health. If we neglect basic health needs like safe water and sanitation, such tragedies will strike us again, and again. Prevention starts with hy- giene, sanitation and safe water and food. Regrettably the present focus seems to be investments in vaccines which are piecemeal solutions. We have a rotavirus vaccine for diarrhoea but it has not brought down the rate of diarrhoeal deaths, as they are many known and unknown agents for contam- ination of water and food besides a single virus or bacteria.
The weekly newsletters bring the updates on the science, battered and bruised during the pandemic, legal updates and impact of activism for a just society, across the world. These are small steps to promote Transparency, Empowerment and Accountability – the ethos of the UHO.
Announcement: Membership & endorsements to the UHO invited: https://uho.org.in/member.php
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