Healthmatters

The Story of Success

Dr Rakesh Sinha launched Success

Profiles-The Anatomy of Success,a DVD of his interview by Jack Canfield,author and co-creator of Chicken Soup for the Soul series,at the Harvard Business School Classroom recently. Sinha is a motivational speaker and mind management expert apart from being a Guinness World Record-holding laparoscopic surgeon.

Asserting Rights

To allay apprehensions among the lesbian,gay,bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community about harassment by police,the Sampathik Trust conducted workshops with personnel at Khadak,Faraskhana and Vishrambaug Wada police stations. Bindu Madhav Khire,President of the trust,said that the main aim of the workshops is to have a dialogue with the police on rights and issues related to gays and transgenders. This will help the community to approach the police without fear in case of harassment and blackmail by anti-social elements. He said the Indian Network For Sexual Minorities had provided a grant in November last year to conduct awareness workshops. While the grant was utilised,the LGBT community has realised that more efforts were required to bring about awareness. Khire welcomed the response from the police who tried to understand the issues they raised. “Although no further grants are scheduled,we feel it is important to keep the momentum going and Samapathik Trust decided to take this initiative forward by conducting short workshops at police stations after the morning or evening roll call,” Khire added.

Food for Thought

Children fed only on their mother’s milk after the first six months face the possibility of a nutritional gap and lowered immunity against preventable illnesses such as diarrhoea and pneumonia. As per the Infant and Young Child Feeding (IYCF) guidelines,this is a serious issue in India where around 40 per cent children remaining without any complementary source of feeding till eight months. “Providing complementary foods rich in essential fatty acids along with mother’s milk will help ensure adequate supply of essential nutrients,vitamins and minerals,” says Dr Ravindra Chittal,Pediatrician and Neonatologist,Lilavati Hospital & Research Centre. He adds that mothers need to understand infant body signals which indicate maturation of intestinal enzymes to suggest introduction of different types of foods.