Health Issues – Precautions to Be Taken to Avoid

Health care is the most important factor to be considered and given importance but the rural villages continue to forget this aspect. They face a lot of health hazards due to lack of proper health care facilities in their areas in addition to their beliefs in customs, traditions and notions.  Proper measures need to be taken and there are certain organizations that are working around to help the rural people.

There is an important saying that reads as “Health is Wealth”, which is very true with every individual irrespective of their gender, age or any other factor. Healthcare is the right of every individual but lack of quality infrastructure, dearth of qualified medical functionaries, and non-access to basic medicines and medical facilities is the situation with most of the villages across India. About 60% of the rural population in India is deprived of proper medical facilities in-spite of the wide spread civilization and technology improvement. A majority of 700 million people lives in rural areas where the condition of medical facilities is deplorable. Major disparities with respect to health and other factors continue to exist due to widening economic gaps, regional and gender disparities and misconceptions. These factors definitely pose a major challenge for the health sector in the villages. Moreover, these rural populations have their own beliefs and practices regarding health, life and practices. There are various other reasons for the health problems cropping up in these villages and a deeper look into these issues has been detailed below.            

Some of the most important health problems that are commonly observed in the rural areas are:

1. Malnutrition: Malnutrition is one of the most dominant health related problem in rural areas. Most of the protein calorie malnutrition cases are reported from these areas due to their lack of knowledge on the importance of proteins and other vitamins in regular diet intake. This also causes vitamin deficiency, anemia, iodine deficiency etc. More than 80% of the rural children are malnourished.
2. Unhygienic Conditions: Lack of proper neatness in their surrounding areas due to lack of proper drainage system in the villages leads to unhygienic conditions leading to diseases like diarrhea, cholera, jaundice, malaria, and recently dengue fewer. This also causes typhoid fever, infectious hepatitis, worm infestations etc. According to a survey around 100 million people suffer from diarrhea and cholera every year.
3. Pregnancy & Maternity Deaths: Pregnant women do not take care of regular monthly check ups and other precautions, thus causing premature death of babies or death of the mother due to lack of proper medical aid or due to lack of knowledge among rural women.
4. Other Common Health Issues: Existence of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, blindness, mental illness, hypertension, diabetes, HIV/AIDS also cater to major health problems. There are also other diseases like tuberculosis, pneumonia, whooping cough, filariasis etc. that also adversely affect the health of rural population.

Comprehensive health care measures need to be taken that has been explained below.             

Precautions & Measures to be taken to Overcome Common Heath Problems:

1. Develop awareness through public mike system with suitable presentations and plays
2. Partner with the local leaders to distribute relevant information and responsive data: This improves their listening and changes to bring about a behavioral change in the people
3. Spread health and agriculture information through native language and dialects such that they realize the need of health and cleanliness
4. Connect and exchange relevant audio systems with well-versed local dialect dialogues
5. Demonstrate through small stage plays the adverse effects of smoking, drinking and other menaces
6. Display videos relevant to their culture and nativity with proper orientation towards health
7. Improve and increase the efficiency of health centers and arrange for appropriate health services at the right venues in association with certain organizations

There is a dire need for new practices and procedures to ensure that quality and timely healthcare reaches the deprived corners of the Indian villages. Though a lot of policies and programs are being run by the Government but the success and effectiveness of these programs is not so effective due to the large gaps that continue to exist in their implementation. In rural India, where the number of Primary health care centers (PHCs) is limited, 8% of the centers do not have doctors or medical staff, 39% do not have lab technicians and more than 20% of them do not even have a pharmacist. They are deprived of any medical tests and have to reach distant places to get even a blood test done.

How to Overcome the Heath Issues and Who Gives a Helping Hand?

Various organizations are coming together for enhancing improvements in health care and technology also plays a crucial role to facilitate this. Information and communications technology provides hosts of solutions for successful implementation of these changes. These organizations cater to health care sector, social sector, and corporate organizations for connecting with the difficult to reach markets at bottom of the pyramid. Many of these organizations are ready to help these people through strategic implementations of technology and further empower village youth with relevant technology and transform them into Smart Actors who in turn will look after the health and other issues of the area.