Today's Time - Healthcare Inequalities in India
As far as the healthcare scenario in India is concerned, we have achieved a lot of success through our efforts but the target that was set for the year 2000 was health for all, it hasn't been achieved. Over the last 50 years the government has been able to establish numerous primary health care centres across the country but in a country with a billion people and counting, complexities while managing health care are quite obvious. In the urban slums of India, healthcare delivery is even more challenging due to the rising population, the poverty and hygiene issues. Diseases like HIV/AIDS that is growing in the slum regions is creating the need for prevention initiatives, pilot projects for care of HIV infected individuals, counseling their families are essential. There is a stigma, a fear or a taboo amongst the people about this life threatening disease.
At present, the need of the hour is to promote health equity, channel the non governmental resources, improvise the managerial sector, create public-private sector partnerships to deal with the demands and the challenges of healthcare.
As per the studies, over 70% of India’s population seeks the help of private medical practitioners. There is substantial information on the misuse of antibiotics and also about people using alternative and traditional methods or practices that they call magical healing and need in-depth evaluation. In some states of India the immunization cover is said to be 20-25 % only which speaks for the poor state of health supervision in the country.
On the brighter side, the government has come up with an action plan on healthcare which involves the people of the country. It is planning to come up with a surveillance system for every state wherein people participate and help in generating essential data. This is certainly a ray of hope for the future of healthcare in the country. Another important initiative in the direction would be increase in the spending on biomedical research. With advanced technology at help, advancement through research can lead to fulfillment of the health for all dream. China is already spending a lot of biomedical research and even increasing its spend substantially year by year. This is a visionary approach towards a healthy country and is a lesson to others too.
