As we all know, poverty and health are connected. The accessibility of health among other social resources is conditioned by several other economic, social and cultural determinants. One of the important learnings of our first hand experience of working on health and reproductive rights issue in communities of Mewat and Gurgaon districts of Haryana was the criticality of viewing efforts at improving women’s health as closely entwined with larger issues of social and economic backwardness of women in traditionally male-dominated societies. Women in the rural areas of Haryana have little control over their lives. They have little power to take part in decision making in family matters. Dependency on male members of the family can be observed in almost every sphere of their lives including their health. In part women’s low status in the family and lack of decision-making power can be ascribed to her almost complete economic and social dependency on men.
It was therefore clear that the impact of any stand alone women ‘health’ program devoid of interventions that address the other associated socio-cultural and economic determinants impacting accessibility would be largely circumscribed.
Thus, over the years the focus of Sukarya’s efforts has shifted from exclusive ‘health’ programs to programs focusing on social and economic determinants impacting health outcomes. With the intention of dovetailing economic and social empowerment intervention with ‘direct’ health programs; Sukarya has enlarged its programmatic area to include income enhancing livelihood supporting initiatives for women.
Empowerment of women has thus emerged as a strategic thrust area in Sukarya’s work on women’s health issues. The idea is economically empower women through micro-credit and entrepreneurship development income enhancement programs which will in turn make women socially mobile and aware and help them overcome some of the social, economic and cultural impediments to leverage their enhanced social and economic standing to access better health care for themselves and their families.
Sukarya means “good work”. We are a Trust under the Indian Trust Act, in February 2001. The mission of Sukarya is to ensure equitable access to quality health services for all including the poorest sections of the society, especially women, adolescents and children by serving the health needs of the underserved and un-reached communities through provision of comprehensive health care services. Health and Women Empowerment are two main thrust areas.
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Saturday, August 14, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
THE NEED TO FOCUS ON HEALTH
Health is the fundamental inalienable right of citizens of any nation. Though India since its liberalization in 90’s has made strident economic growth the quality of development especially in the health sector is an area of concern. Just to give you a glimpse of the prevailing health status,
India accounts for more than 20% of global maternal and child deaths, and the highest maternal death toll in the world estimated at 138,000.1
United Nations calculations show that India’s spending on public health provision, as a share of GDP is the 18th lowest in the world.
Nearly 67% of the population in India do not have access to essential medicines.
Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in India was 57 in 2005-06.
79% of the children between the age of 6-35 months, and more than 50% of women, are anaemic, and 40% of the maternal deaths during pregnancy and child-birth relate to anaemia and under-nutrition.
There are 585 rural hospitals compared to 985 urban hospitals in the country.
The ratio of hospital beds to population in rural areas is almost fifteen times lower than that for urban areas.
A villager needs to travel over 2 km to reach the first health post for getting a tablet of paracetamol; over 6 km for a blood test and nearly 20 km for hospital care.
A study conducted by the World Bank showed absenteeism ranging from 40% to 45% among doctors working in primary health centres.
It is obvious from the above statistics that the distribution of health resources are skewed in favour of the urban, privileged masses in the cities and the remote, rural areas and the under privileged sections of society including the urban poor are left without any access to basic health care services.
It is important to understand that health and poverty are closely related and a nation with good health tends to be more productive and that productivity tends to uplift economic and societal development. Therefore any nation –building exercise should first focus on ensuring basic health to its people and improving health should be the fundamental goal of economic development.
The challenges facing the nations’ health are eliminating infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies, unsafe pregnancies and the challenge of escalating epidemics of non-communicable diseases. This requires a concerted public health response that can ensure delivery of cost-effective interventions for health promotion, disease prevention and affordable diagnostic and the therapeutic health care.
The health programs of Sukarya, a non-profit development organisation has been guided by its motto “behtar swasthya, behtar samaj’ since its inception in 2001. Sukarya’s work in the health sector focuses on making primary health care accessible to the underprivileged and underserved communities with the ultimate aim of contributing to the nations’ health and in turn to its growth and development.
In all its effort, the aim of Sukarya has been to reach the un-reached, marginalized and most vulnerable sections of society. In a society characterized by inequitable distribution of development, there exists a disparity in access to resources. Sukarya has therefore been particularly focusing on concerns of women and children who remain disadvantaged and to whom ‘heath’ remains elusive because of broader socio-cultural and economic factors. The high infant and maternal morbidity and mortality rate is a clear development indicator that proves the low health status of women and children in our country despite some strident development in other areas.
Sukarya has therefore specially been focusing on the health needs of the most vulnerable sections including women and children. The health concerns of women and children therefore find a greater programmatic space in our work. The critical areas of work in Sukarya’s health intervention therefore include efforts at ensuring safe motherhood, reproductive health, nutrition, sanitation, immunization and child care.
India accounts for more than 20% of global maternal and child deaths, and the highest maternal death toll in the world estimated at 138,000.1
United Nations calculations show that India’s spending on public health provision, as a share of GDP is the 18th lowest in the world.
Nearly 67% of the population in India do not have access to essential medicines.
Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) in India was 57 in 2005-06.
79% of the children between the age of 6-35 months, and more than 50% of women, are anaemic, and 40% of the maternal deaths during pregnancy and child-birth relate to anaemia and under-nutrition.
There are 585 rural hospitals compared to 985 urban hospitals in the country.
The ratio of hospital beds to population in rural areas is almost fifteen times lower than that for urban areas.
A villager needs to travel over 2 km to reach the first health post for getting a tablet of paracetamol; over 6 km for a blood test and nearly 20 km for hospital care.
A study conducted by the World Bank showed absenteeism ranging from 40% to 45% among doctors working in primary health centres.
It is obvious from the above statistics that the distribution of health resources are skewed in favour of the urban, privileged masses in the cities and the remote, rural areas and the under privileged sections of society including the urban poor are left without any access to basic health care services.
It is important to understand that health and poverty are closely related and a nation with good health tends to be more productive and that productivity tends to uplift economic and societal development. Therefore any nation –building exercise should first focus on ensuring basic health to its people and improving health should be the fundamental goal of economic development.
The challenges facing the nations’ health are eliminating infectious diseases, nutritional deficiencies, unsafe pregnancies and the challenge of escalating epidemics of non-communicable diseases. This requires a concerted public health response that can ensure delivery of cost-effective interventions for health promotion, disease prevention and affordable diagnostic and the therapeutic health care.
The health programs of Sukarya, a non-profit development organisation has been guided by its motto “behtar swasthya, behtar samaj’ since its inception in 2001. Sukarya’s work in the health sector focuses on making primary health care accessible to the underprivileged and underserved communities with the ultimate aim of contributing to the nations’ health and in turn to its growth and development.
In all its effort, the aim of Sukarya has been to reach the un-reached, marginalized and most vulnerable sections of society. In a society characterized by inequitable distribution of development, there exists a disparity in access to resources. Sukarya has therefore been particularly focusing on concerns of women and children who remain disadvantaged and to whom ‘heath’ remains elusive because of broader socio-cultural and economic factors. The high infant and maternal morbidity and mortality rate is a clear development indicator that proves the low health status of women and children in our country despite some strident development in other areas.
Sukarya has therefore specially been focusing on the health needs of the most vulnerable sections including women and children. The health concerns of women and children therefore find a greater programmatic space in our work. The critical areas of work in Sukarya’s health intervention therefore include efforts at ensuring safe motherhood, reproductive health, nutrition, sanitation, immunization and child care.
Sukarya brochure - An Introduction to Sukarya
Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
Sukarya brochure - An Introduction to Sukarya
View more documents from Shipra Shukla.
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