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India makes gains in health sector but work half done

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | By
Mar 27, 2017 07:13 AM IST

Life improved a little for women over the past decade, though it still isn’t at par with men, shows data from the fourth edition of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), which is based on a multi-round survey of 601,509 households between January 2015 and December 2016.

Life’s become a tad comfortable for more Indians with electricity, clean cooking fuel, toilets and improved drinking water reaching more homes than before, but improved infrastructure does not find a reflection in improved health.

Life improved a little for women over the past decade, though it still isn’t at par with men, shows data from the fourth edition of the National Family Health Survey.(HT File/ Representational Photo)
Life improved a little for women over the past decade, though it still isn’t at par with men, shows data from the fourth edition of the National Family Health Survey.(HT File/ Representational Photo)

Life improved a little for women over the past decade, though it still isn’t at par with men, shows data from the fourth edition of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4), which is based on a multi-round survey of 601,509 households between January 2015 and December 2016.

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Women are still not earning, with around one in four (24.6%) being paid cash over the past one year, down from 28.6% in 2015-06. This makes them dependent on family, even though more of them participate in household decisions than they did a decade ago.

Slow improvement

Women’s health has improved, but only marginally. There was a slight fall in the number of women with anaemia — from 55.2% in 2005-06 to 53.1%. The number of underweight women fell by close to 13%, while those who are overweight and obese have risen sharply. With more children being born in hospitals, fewer babies are dying after birth. However, children’s health is not getting better — though the number of underweight children has gone down marginally, stunting has risen over the past decade.

A major reason is malnutrition and infections such as diarrhoea. “Government is improving coverage and access to treatment for pneumococcal diseases and diarrhoeal diseases. The rapid scale-up of childhood vaccines like Rota vaccine and planned pneumococcal vaccine introduction will address the issue of childhood diarrhoea and pneumonia and lower child mortality,” said Nachiket Mor, director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, India.

Lifestyle challenges

One in five women in India is overweight or obese, while one in six men has unhealthy weight.

Tobacco-control policies have bought down consumption. “Policies such as smoke-free rules, 85% graphic warnings and gutka ban helped, but the work is half done,” said Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, chief executive of Voluntary Health Association of India.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Sanchita is the health & science editor of the Hindustan Times. She has been reporting and writing on public health policy, health and nutrition for close to two decades. She is an International Reporting Project fellow from Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at the Bloomberg School of Public Health and was part of the expert group that drafted the Press Council of India’s media guidelines on health reporting, including reporting on people living with HIV.

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