Himachal Pradesh

Turning down the narrative of “double engine” government, Himachal Pradesh once again voted Congress in with a thumping majority of seats. The Congress’s win can be attributed to a series of factors such as the promise of old pension scheme for about 1,50,000 employees, anti-incumbency linked to poor performance of the Jai Ram Thakur government, and intra-party factionalism in Bharatiya Janata Party. The thesis that India has gone down the path of “de jure majoritarianism” from “de facto majoritarianism” since 2019 receives a setback with the Congress’s victory in HP. This election also proved that the party system of HP remains predominantly a two-party system and there is lesser space for a third party like the Aam Aadmi Party which could only secure less than 1% votes.

Acute respiratory illness and diarrhoea cause high levels of child morbidity and mortality in Jammu and Kashmir, and high levels of insurgency and an unstable political environment have usually been identified as the two main causes for the poor health conditions in the state. This article is based on a study which compares J&K with Himachal Pradesh and finds that some of the causes for poor health oucomes in the former may be unrelated to insurgency or related issues.

The use of biofuels in rural households of developing countries generates indoor air pollution that imposes health risks, especially for those actively involved in cooking. This study examines risk factors for respiratory symptoms for rural women on the basis of comprehensive data on socio-economic variables, smoking habits, characteristics of the kitchen, cooking practices, fuel used, health symptoms, etc, from a very large number of sample households in three north Indian states, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. The study points to a need for creating awareness on the issue in addition to making available more efficient stoves and clean fuels and highlighting the importance of proper ventilation in the cooking areas.