Times of India
8 Jan 2009
Chennai, India
TNN

{jumi usermod/ads/ads.php}{/jumi} The Central Government is planning to make yoga mandatory in all schools and colleges, including private institutions, Union health minister Anbumani Ramadoss said here on Thursday.

Inaugurating a seminar on “Disease control priorities in India,” organised by D. G. Vaishnav College, Anbumani said students should realise the importance of yoga which had been known to prevent many health–related problems like blood pressure and heart diseases. He also cautioned that climate change would be the major challenge to the world and could bring more health problems.

Referring to the vacancies in government hospitals, Anbumani said his ministry was filling them up by appointing doctors and nurses on contract basis. “The national urban health mission scheme which is going to be inaugurated in a month will primarily concentrate on slum dwellers in urban areas. Totally about 22 crore people, including six crore from slums, will benefited by the scheme,” the minister added.

Pointing out that about 10 lakh people died every year in India due to tobacco consumption of which five lakh were affected by cancer, he said the ban on smoking was aimed at protecting public health and said people should also keep away from drugs, alcohol and junk food. “Earlier, the age when one was initiated into alcohol consumption was 28. This later came down to 19 and now it is as low as 13. Presently, about 40 per cent of the road accidents in the country occur due to drunken driving,” Anbumani said.

Urging the press and the media to exercise self–restraint, he blamed a secion of the media for spreading rumours about the recent polio immunization programme. “Such people should be treated as offenders and booked under the National Security Act,” he said. The minister claimed that the government had been successful in eradicating diseases like leprosy and polio and said it was continuing efforts to maintain public health.