Medical textbooks in India have been found to contain outdated principles citing homosexuality as a pathological disorder. Such information could be enshrining this way of thinking into a new generation of doctors, leading to poor health outcomes in the LGBTIQ community as a result of discrimination. Dr Sameera Mahamud Jahagirdar, Assistant Professor at the Department […]
stigma
Archaic laws holding back leprosy eradication
In 2018, then-Union Health Minister J P Nadda promised the eradication of leprosy by the end of the year. This aim was clearly not achieved, with cases of leprosy seeming to be in resurgence. Now, Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has set about a far more realistic goal — the elimination of archaic laws forcing […]
Hugging away mental health stigma
Some 150 million Indians live with some manner of mental health issue. Despite this significant burden, stigma against mental illness not only exists: it is common. One group plans on changing this attitude, one hug at a time. Launched in Mumbai in October 2017, the Hugging Club of India (HCI) provides sessions which offer […]
Underwear, stigma, and the risk of disease
When thinking of infections, one of the the last things that immediately comes to mind is lingerie. However, stigma regarding women’s sexuality and menstrual hygiene may be leading to a heightened risk of infection owing to women’s underwear, according to gynaecologists and epidemiologists. Though an odd correlation, there is a specific alteration to behaviour that […]