India is drawing the world’s attention, not only because of its population explosion but also because of its prevailing as well as emerging health profile and profound political, economic and social transformations.
Rural people in India in general, and tribal populations in particular, have their own beliefs and practices regarding health. There are certain tribal groups who still believes that a disease is always caused by hostile spirits or by the breach of some taboo. They therefore seek remedies through magico- religious practices.
On the other hand, some rural people have continued to follow rich, undocumented, traditional medicine systems, in addition to the recognised cultural systems of medicine such Ayurveda, unani, siddha and naturopathy, to maintain positive health and to prevent disease.
However health among people of rural areas is mostly affiliated to deterioration. This is the because of lack of health literature and health consciousness, poor maternal and child health services and occupational hazards. Apart from this the governing bodies oftenly fail to provide facilities whether it is in terms of infrastructure or the medical staff.
“People in rural areas generally have less access to healthcare than their urban counterparts. Fewer medical practitioners, mental health programs, and healthcare facilities in these areas often mean less preventative care and longer response times in emergencies.” (Source~ Times of India)
Poor living and working conditions, irregular drug supply, weak infrastructure, professional isolation and the burden of administrative work–these are some of the challenges faced by doctors on rural postings, stated a 2017 study by the Public Health Foundation of India.
Some of the major health related issues observed among such people includes: They experience a higher prevalence of chronic conditions than their urban counterparts. Examples of chronic conditions include heart disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, stroke, and diabetes. Rural communities also experience higher rates of mortality and disability than urban communities.(Source~Wikipedia)
Having said this, it also needs to be mentioned that care provided for maternal and child health, immunisation, care for tuberculosis, malaria, sickle cell disease and some chronic diseases does benefit the needy population. There is a lot of scope to improve these services further.
However, there are various medicinal schemes established for such individuals but the implication of such schemes is absent. Certain benefits are only prevalent on papers but when it comes to actual usage those plan becomes vanish.
People who have experienced such neglection have raised their voice in search of gaining justice. In an interview of scroll.in with Dr. Yogesh neuroimmunologist and public health practitioner, working in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, he talks about the state of rural health systems and what to expect as the virus penetrates deeper into rural and peri-urban areas.
He was asked about, What is the capacity for testing in rural areas. Is access to RT-PCR tests, considered the gold standard of testing for Covid-19, difficult? How robust is the process of testing, tracing and isolating?
“Laboratory testing is the Achilles’ heel of rural healthcare and even simple laboratory tests are not easily available. Access to RT-PCR is very difficult in rural areas. In many districts such a facility is only available at the district headquarters. In some districts of India, these facilities are not available even at the district headquarters. ”(Source~scroll)
People in such regions are forced to take treatment from private hospitals and therefore being charged with huge amount of prices. This occurs due to irregular management of government hospitals either they are not developed or completely absent.
Moreover issue such as, Malnutrition is one of the most dominant health related problems in rural areas. There is widespread pre- valence of protein energy malnutrition (PEM), anaemia, vitamin A deficiency and iodine deficiency. Nearly 100 million children do not get two meals a day. More than 85% of rural children are undernourished (150 000 die every year).
The reasons behind such dominant health related issues include:
- Higher poverty rates
- A higher percentage of older adults, who are more likely to have chronic health problems
- More residents without health insurance
- Less access to health care. For example, clinics and hospitals may be far away.
- Higher rates of certain substance use, such as cigarettes smoking and opioid and methamphetamine misuse.
- Higher rates of chronic health problems such as high blood pressure and obesity.
However, on an individual bases people are responsible to develop their own health environment. But on the other hand due to poor influence of developing world and vague knowledge about medicinal field. This becomes duty of the governing body to provide with relevant and significant facilities to those people in need so that a proper health and disease free nation can be developed.
The Government can improvise the health among rural areas by implementing following ways which are published by World Health Organisation (WHO).
1. Governments should promote investment in health development as having important economic return and should advocate the centrality of health in all development initiatives.
2.Governments should continue to play their leadership role in health development in order to protect societal values of equity, solidarity and fairness in line with health for all policies and strategies which consider health as a human right and not as a market commodity.
3.Governments should strengthen their governance capabilities, particularly in policy development, regulation and public/private mix management. The role of government in service delivery should be protected in order to secure access for the poor, vulnerable groups and rural and remote populations. Particular interest should be paid to improving working conditions for professionals working full time in government facilities.
4. Governments should promote the development of national health system observatories aimed at developing forums to assess equity and health system performance and to better adapt policy reforms to the evolving changes in the political, economic and social fields.
“Healthy Citizens are the Greatest Asset said any Country can have”.
