HEALTH INEQUALITIES

 


INTRODUCTION:-

Inequalities are a sad reality of the society. Despite having numerous advances in various fields of science, technology, innovation etc., the human civilization has not been able to completely remove the inequalities from the society. The field of healthcare is no exception to this phenomena. It is quite evident that in India there are inequalities in the field of healthcare beyond comprehension. In this blog, we shall be understanding the state of inequalities in the field of healthcare in India with reference to the National Family Health Survey-5 published by The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.


The parameters that have been utilized by me in order to determine the health inequalities in India are as follows:-

1. AVAILABILITY OF PURE DRINKING WATER:-



Water can be said to be the foundation of all life on earth. it is an essential material for the survival of human-beings. despite the sufficiency of water on earth, due to the unequal distribution of water and the lack of proper tap water services, it is a luxury to some. As per the survey, there has been an overall increase of 2% in the households living under the supply of water from an improved source. However, this figure is 95% in rural and 99% in urban areas which exposes the urban-rural divide of India. 

2. SEX RATIO:-



The sex ratio of any country is a true determinant of the status of women in a society. A society with a skewed sex ratio is often a regressive and patriarchal society. In India, for the past many years it has been observed that the number of women per 1000 men were always lesser. However, this time; there has been a remarkable change in this statistic. for the first time in recorded history of India; the number of women in India are more than the number of men in India. for the year 2019-21 the sex ratio in India was 1020 women per 1000 men. However, it should also be noted that the sex ratio of urban areas is only 985 compared to the 1037 in the rural areas. In the near future it could very well be seen that the sex ratio of India would again start to deteriorate once the facilities of abortion and illegal sex testing would start becoming more widely available in the rural parts of India.

3. INFANT MORTALITY  RATE:-



Infant mortality rate means the number of children who die before the age of one year per every 1000 live births. It is also an indicator used for the human Development Index and the Physical Quality of Life index so, it is quite evident that it is one of the most important for the calculation of the presence of health inequalities in a society. A higher infant mortality rate is an indicator of lack of availability of proper medical facilities and a lack of health related education. The infant mortality rate of India has shown an improvement to 35.2 from 40.7 However, here also the urban-rural divide is evident as it is 38.4 in rural and 26.6 in the urban areas. in the developed countries this number is below 10. So, despite development, a lot is to be desired further in this field.

4. MEDICAL CONDITIONS OF CHRONIC DISEASES:-

The  blame for the chronic diseases can be given to the the heredity, lifestyle and the diagnosis of such diseases. In a country with a backward healthcare and medical facilities, it is almost certain that the diagnosis of such diseases is not very common. As a result, the life risk of the patient of such diseases also increases. Here, we have considered the examples of two chronic diseases namely, Hypertension and Diabetes.

DIABETES:-



If we talk about the data of diabetes, it is quite evident that the blood sugar level of men and women of villages is better than the people of urban areas. For women, the percentage of people have a blood sugar level of more than 140 mg/dl are 25.9%. So roughly one-quarter of Indian women are suffering from diabetes. This number is 30.1% for Indian men which is even worse.

HYPERTENSION:-




Hypertension is a situation of medical high blood pressure that can be caused due to the non-availability of medical counselling for a long and uninterrupted period of time. In a developing country like India with a lack of primary healthcare facilities, it is quite clear that such a serious health condition would also go unnoticed due to the lack of proper resources.

In India, of women suffering from hypertension are 38.9% and statistic is 45.4% for the men. It can be declared as a chronic epidemic because roughly half of the country is suffering from it.

CONCLUSION:-

Thus, it can be concluded that there is still a wide scope of improvement in the Indian healthcare system. Regardless of the existent inequalities, it can be stated that there the overall trajectory of India in the sphere of healthcare is incremental in nature. In the future, it is expected that the inequalities of healthcare in India would further reduce.

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