CLAT English Language: Population Control & Health Care

Ignorance and superstition are major obstacles to overcome in rural villages, where dangerous home deliveries are commonplace. But Dr. Gaikwad estimates that 90 percent of expectant mothers in Dharavi are booked for hospital stays well in advance, a testament to the goodwill and strong communication lines that have been established here between medical staff and the local community. The process of registering patients for delivery begins as soon as one of the door-to-door volunteers learns of a new pregnancy. A file is then prepared for the mother-to-be, charting her progress leading up to and after the moment of childbirth. Along the way, crucial medicines and vitamins are freely distributed to balance out deficiencies in the diets of women who oftentimes cannot afford adequate nutrition in their daily meals.

While another post-graduate will eventually replace Dr. Gaikwad, Ms. Nadumani and her colleagues have been serving their community for two decades now.

"I remember when I first started these shifts, 20 years ago,"Ms. Nadumani said. "I had to warn so many more women about the dangers of passing HIV/AIDS to their babies back then."

She is satisfied that her efforts in the community are paying off not because of what shows up in statistics, but because of the reduction in HIV-positive patients she now witnesses firsthand.

"People listen to me because I live here, "MS. Nadumani explained. "I'm part of the neighborhood."

Today, however, Ms. Nadumani's most important duty is not educating people about a disease like HIV/AIDS, or even advising pregnant women, but helping to control the population itself. After women give birth to a second child, Ms. Nadumani and the other volunteers urge them to try using condoms in the hopes of reducing the birth rate. There are certain stigmas against using condoms, however, and these women can instead opt for temporary or permanent sterilization. The government then compensates those who apply for such measures with checks of 500-1000 rupees . The community here can ill afford any increases to its 13.89% birth rate.

While Chhota Sion has made impressive progress in improving the safety of childbirth in Dharavi, workers fear that they are working against the clock: the birth rate of 13.89%, for example, indicates the percentage rise of new people born into the slum each year, and the death rate, 5.24%, indicates the numbers of human beings taken away from it. In concert, those numbers paint a picture of a population that increased roughly 8.5% percent over the course of the last calendar year, not to mention migration to the area. Should that trend continue apace, Sion could eventually find itself stretched as thin as those peripheral hospitals mentioned by Dr. Nayak, erasing what has become a bright spot in the war against maternal and infant mortality. It is an outcome that everyone who works here is eager to avoid.

CLAT English Language: Dementia

Imagine yourself unable to communicate, how would you express yourself? Would art be an effective conduit? There are millions of people in the world for whom visual communication may become the only method available... they suffer from the debilitating symptoms of dementia. Creative people are not immune, in fact, they may be a crucial element in finding a cure.

Dementia is a clinical umbrella term used to describe the acute loss of cognitive and intellectual functions. Dementia isn't a disease, it's a syndrome... a complex of conditions and symptoms related to more than 70 diseases that affect the brain's cells, neural networks, and chemical processes. Two widespread diseases in the dementia complex are Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD).

Are people who have symptoms of dementia, such as FTD and AD, insane? Not at all! They are merely ordinary people who have fallen victim to specific neurodegenerative diseases that affect the brain's capabilities to function properly. Anyone of us could unexpectedly become a victim of one of these diseases... and endure not only its physical and mental effects but also, the stereotypical reactions of onlookers. Artists like Vincent van Gogh and Wilheim de Kooning endured the symptoms of dementia and the stigma it engenders. Van Gogh's dementia, believed to have been caused by environmental factors, resulted in personal disfiguration and ultimately, suicide.

De Kooning's bout with AD stigmatized his status in the art world. Though he painted until his death, his works created during the period of his illness were eventually deemed aesthetically valueless.

Most problematic of all, naturally, are the paintings--currently on view at New York City's Museum of Modern Art--that were done in the '80s, after his mind was completely gone and he had to rely on assistants to do everything but move his arm across the canvas. These spectral, vacuous confections of ribbony paint are among the saddest things ever made by a once-major artist. Still, not even they can detract from the brilliant achievements of de Kooning's earlier years.

The same art world that had initially embraced de Kooning, and regarded his early works as a major contribution to the evolution of Abstract Expressionism, criticized and abandoned him after his illness was identified.

The critical frenzy over de Kooning's diagnosis points to the stigmatization of aging and Alzheimer's, and the art world's obsession with youth. It's true that age and illness affect the body and mind, but how do they affect one's ability to paint? We can't know, exactly, how an artist's mental state affects his work. What we can know, ultimately, is how a painting turns out.

Dementia has been acknowledged and branded for centuries. It has been documented since the days of the Roman Empire and studied since medicine became a science. It is in the 21st century that scientists may finally understand the workings of the human brain, and perhaps find a cure for this debilitating complex of diseases.