Health is most important for our life. As long as a person is healthy, he has the capacity to work. When he starts becoming unhealthy, his capacity to work also starts weakening. That is why our elders used to say that the first happiness is a healthy body. That is, the first happiness is obtained only when the body is healthy. In today’s era, due to negligence in eating, most of the people have started suffering from some disease or the other. This has also reduced their working capacity. When a person becomes unhealthy, money is spent on his treatment, due to which his financial condition starts weakening. Along with this, the entire family of the sick person also starts living under stress due to his illness. In today’s hectic life, the person who is able to keep his health right. He can be the happiest even by earning less. That is why we should pay the most attention to our health.
Today, concern is being expressed about human health all over the world. The World Health Organization also keeps warning the countries of the world from time to time. The corona epidemic that came a few years ago shook the whole world. But it came under control due to the promptness of the scientists to manufacture the vaccine. But there is no guarantee in the future that an epidemic like corona will not come again. A new epidemic can come at any time. Therefore, we should be careful in our food, lifestyle and environment so that we can avoid unnecessary diseases.
World Health Day is celebrated all over the world on 7 April every year to be health conscious. The purpose of the World Health Organization behind celebrating this day is to make people aware about health all over the world. At the same time, to encourage and motivate governments to formulate health policies. Currently, under the banner of this organization, more than 195 countries are trying to make the citizens of their respective countries disease-free. The celebration of World Health Day started in 1950. World Health Day targets all health related issues on a global basis. For which programs are organized.
The World Health Organization organizes various programs based on special themes at international and national levels. A special theme is chosen to take care of health throughout the year and to run the celebration. The theme of World Health Day in the year 2025 is Healthy Start, Hopeful Future. This theme focuses on enhancing the health and life of mothers and newborns. The goal of which is to raise awareness about avoidable maternal and infant deaths. A report by the Health Organization states that half of the Indians do not have access to essential health services. While people who avail health services are spending more than 10 percent of their income on treatment. India’s score in the Global Cyber Security Index (GCI) 2024 has been 98.49/100. This score puts India in Tier 1 along with countries like the US, Japan, and Australia. As per the Global Health Security Index 2024 India is ranked 66th out of 195 countries with an overall index score of 42.8 and a change of -0.8 from 2019. As per the ranking of health systems of countries around the world in 2021, India was ranked 111th out of 167 countries based on health index score.
According to the National Family Health Survey, 3.88 percent of children aged three years have not been able to grow as per their age and 46 percent children are underweight as compared to their age, while 79.2 percent children are suffering from anemia. Anemia has increased from 50 to 58 percent in pregnant women. It is said that the country in which the medical facilities are better, the higher will be the average age of the people of that country. Indians will be surprised to know that Bangladesh is ahead of India in terms of average age. While the average age in India is considered to be 64.6 years, in Bangladesh it is 66.9 years. Apart from this, the ratio of underweight children in India is 43.5 percent and the fertility rate is 2.7 percent, while the mortality rate of children below five years of age is 66 and the infant mortality rate is 41 per thousand children born, while 66 percent children have to be given DPT vaccine.
According to the Indian Health Report, public health services are still not completely free and the condition of those which are available is not good. There is a great shortage of trained people in the field of health. The ratio of doctors and population in India is also not satisfactory. In our country, there is not even one doctor available for 1000 people. The availability of beds in hospitals is also very less and only 28 percent of the people take care of better cleanliness. In the last few years, the effect of deadly diseases like cancer has increased in our country. Along with this, a large number of people are falling prey to diabetes, heart disease, tuberculosis, obesity, stress. The risk of breast cancer and uterine cancer has increased in women. These diseases are causing their death in large numbers. Most of the population of the country in the rural section is becoming a victim of malnutrition due to lack of proper food. The level of malnutrition has been seen to be high in women and children. According to a report, seven out of every 10 children are suffering from anemia. At the same time, 36 percent of the female population is a victim of malnutrition.
The number of afflicted people in India who spend from their own pockets on treatment is more than the combined population of Britain, France and Germany. In comparison to India, the percentage of people spending more than 10% of their income on treatment in the country’s total population is 2.9% in Sri Lanka, 1.6% in Britain, 4.8% in America and 17.7% in China. According to the World Health Organization, many people are still dying from such diseases.
The World Health Organization report said that 3.9% of the country’s population, i.e. 5.1 crore Indians, spend more than a quarter of their household budget on treatment. Whereas in Sri Lanka such a population is only 0.1%, in Britain it is 0.5%, in America it is 0.8% and in China it is 4.8%. The global average of the population spending more than 10% of their income on treatment is 11.7%. Among these, 2.6% people spend more than 25% of their income on treatment and about 1.4% of the world’s people become victims of extreme poverty due to spending on treatment. Until proper and appropriate health services are not available in the rural areas of the country, the plan of health for everyone in India will not be completed. Today, the condition of medical facilities in the remote rural areas of the country is very frightening. Everyday we get to read news that due to lack of ambulance, the dead have to be brought home by tying them on a bicycle. Due to lack of health facilities in villages, people can be seen visiting tantriks. Private doctors also prefer to work in cities for earning money. Until attention is not given to the villages, the dream of health for everyone in India will not be fulfilled.
(The author is a freelance journalist recognized by the Rajasthan government.)