Essay on “Health” Complete Essay for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

Health

Recently, the government launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) aimed at correcting rural inequities in the matter of health. It correctly seeks to integrate health with those essential inputs in health, namely , sanitation, hygiene , safe drinking water, and nutrition. Most of the schemes and programmers initiated by our governments looks good on paper; where they fail is where it really masters-on the ground, in the implementation. The infrastructure devised- again on paper-for rural health delivery has little to find fault with, but the primary health centers and sub-centers, as we all know, are crumbling if they have not already collapsed. In place of a well structured delivery system of health care, there is a thriving sector of quacks. And by quacks, one does not necessarily mean practioners of the indigenous systems of medicine per se, but pretenders to all systems of medicine. Is that only because of paucity of funds, as government investment in the health sector is admittedly low as a proportion of the GDP? One hesitates to put all the blame on tically all our well-intentioned plans and programmers for the welfare of the people.

          The NHRM Proposes to empower local communities in the matter of public health; specific health plans are sought to be drawn up for each village by special health committees within the panchayats. Good enough, but what about the way our villages are structured? There has been little change in the feudal mindsets and the caste/community hierarchies , Panchayats, supposed to be epitomes of grassroots democracy, are notorious for the stifling of democratic values. irrespective of caste and community , there is universal discrimination against women. In the circumstances , the social participation and empowerment envisaged by the health mission is bound to be skewed in favour of the already empowered to the further detriment of the already marginalized. The panchayats are not the ideal political bodies that one likes to see them as- fair and free of bias. It was possible in a story by Premchand for a person to lose his personal grudges and become objective and absolutely just as a soon as he assumed the position of  ‘panch’. In today’s realities, patronage alone is seen as functioning. The selection of the office bearers will be governed by who is close to the ruling elite at the village level. It would be foolish to expect equitable representation of all castes and communities, and least of all women , in such a situation. So , whither the basic objective of empowering local communities? Will , for instance, there be a concerted effort to root out female foeticide without women becoming strong enough a voice their protest and stand up for their rights?

          Women , from infant stage to their old age , get an unfair deal in matters of health. Firstly, as a class, they are conditioned through generations to place themselves last within the  family itself, though they put in the most labour without any  financial gain in the funning of that family. As such , their health concerns also get a very low priority, if at all. Women themselves bear in silence pain and discomfort for long periods of time without seeking relief. And they are implicitly encouraged by other family members to do so. The abysmal sex ratio in India as revealed by the 2001 census speaks volumes about the importance given to women in this country. Women are discriminated subtly and not so subtly when it comes to the treatment of diseases and medical problem requiring expensive treatment, it is inevitably the man who gets the first attention, often the only one to get the attention; women can wait. All means of bearing the cost of treatment will be explored and availed for the man’s treatment but in the case of the woman, there will be procrastination, an unwillingness to go to all lengths to procure the treatment. It is not just the poor who , for want of resources, and with the inherent preference for the boy, are guilty of this dangerous and condemnable bias. a survey of uptown hospitals in Delhi revealed that even well-off parents discriminate against the girl child in the matter of medical treatment. Seems unbelievable, but statistics go to prove this fact. Doctors vouch for the fact that it is attitude that is responsible for the skewed statistics it would be blatantly erroneous to assume that the health of the girl child id so robust that she needs little medical attention! Doctors say how parents often declare their unwillingness to pay for the expensive treatment of their daughter, and that is would be different if it a son were the patient. Yet another statistical information spoke volumes about the bias. while the male – women ratio for organ donors at the AIIMS was 40 to 100, the male-female ratio of recipients of organs at the same hospital was 560 to 100!