Health and Lifestyle in India

A person needs to be healthy. A person who is not healthy would not be able to enjoy the beauty of life. The health and lifestyle of a person are not only decided by his/her food nutrition but also on the amount of sleep he /she is taking, the yoga, and the exercise he/ she is performing. A person who follows a healthy lifestyle would not fall prey to diseases easily.

According to WHO, “ Healthy living is a way of living that helps you enjoy more aspects of your life “. Keeping a healthy lifestyle would not only keep you physically fit but will also provide you with a good social and mental life. Your healthy lifestyle would radiate an optimism from you that would inspire others too especially the young ones. By inspiring others you would be contributing to their well-being too and this feeling will create mental peace in oneself.

Everyone’s life is difficult full of stress and depression but we are supposed to tackle them positively and not by depending on toxic stuff like smoking and alcohol. These toxic things would initially seem to be pleasing but at the biological level, they are going to affect the most.

India’s population, as of 2011 stood at 1.21 billion (0.62 billion males and 0.588 billion females). There are great inequalities in health between states. The infant mortality in Kerala is 6 per thousand live births, but in Uttar Pradesh, it is 64.

The life expectancy at birth has increased from 49.7 years in 1970–1975 to 67.9 years in 2010–2014. For the same period, the life expectancy for females is 69.6 years and 66.4 years for males. In 2018, the life expectancy at birth is said to be 69.1 years.

The infant mortality rate has declined from 74 per 1,000 live births in 1994 to 37 per 1,000 live births in 2015. However, the differentials of rural and urban as of 2015 are still high. In 2016, the infant mortality rate was estimated to be 34.6 per 1,000 live births.

The under-five mortality rate for the country was 113 per 1,000 live births in 1994 whereas in 2018 it reduced to 41.1 per 1,000 live births.

The maternal mortality ratio has declined from 212 per 100 000 live births in 2007–2009 to 167 per 100 000 live births in 2011–2013. However, the differentials for state Kerala (61) and Assam (300) as of 2011–2013 are still high. In 2013, the maternal mortality ratio was estimated to be 190 per 100 000 live births.

The total fertility rate for the country was 2.3 in rural areas whereas it has been 1.8 in urban areas during 2015.

1. IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION

Globalization refers to the process of haste integration of countries and happenings through greater foreign trade and foreign investment. It is the process of international integration arising from the interchange of world views, products, ideas, and other aspects of culture.

• The result of globalization is invincible. To only believe that globalization has an overall positive response is not true. No doubt that it has brought a revolution in the field of transportation and communication. It has been proved to be a boon in a health catastrophe.
• Advanced globalization may help but the side effects of these new medicines are unavoidable and would be proved larger in comparison to the expenditure. Medical technology in India has somehow focused on pharmaceutical drugs, diagnostics for sex determination of the fetus, and corruption in public procurement. The latter is something that could be considered as the repercussion of this advancement in technology. The side effects of it on an individual are severe.
• Rapid advancement in the field of transportation and communication leads to the mobility of huge crowds over the borders which might lead to the transmission of infectious diseases. This is a threat to all the persons particularly the poor sections of the society.
• Development of the profit-health care hospitals and labs architecture and technology has made it difficult for the poor people in availing such costly facilities. The proportion of those who were unable to access care because of financial reasons has gone up significantly in both rural and urban areas, as has the proportion who says that there is a bio-medical facility available. Due to the decline of public health care in most places, it is increasing the privatization of health care.

Globalization is one of the key challenges in the field of health care affecting the health and life cycle of many individuals.

2. RATE OF LITERACY

Everyone should be aware of his/her health and should be having some of the biological subjects regarding it. Getting educated is well and good but not sufficient. A person should be educated not only in his/her professional field but in the health field too.

A person educated in health literacy would not only help others with their medication but would also not meet with diseases that easily.

Even people who read well and are comfortable using numbers can face health literacy issues when :

· They are not familiar with medical terms or how their bodies function.

· They get confused and bothered a lot about the diseases they are facing.

· They have health conditions that require complicated self-care like diabetes, blood pressure issues, etc.

· When they do not trust the medical technology completely.

Why Do We Have a Health Literacy Problem?

When many options are available to the people regarding health care, it creates a dilemma among them to choose which facility. This condition is known as a health literacy problem.

3. HEALTH & LIFESTYLE IN URBAN AREA

The urban area of India is neither appropriate nor adequate since it is not even partially able to meet the needs of the people of the poor section.

Recent reports indicate that there are 1083 Urban Family Welfare Center (UFWCs)1, and 871 Health Posts (HPs)2 that cater to 377 million people living in the urban areas in the country. This translates to one UFWC/HP per 192,992 urban populations, compared to the norm of one center for every 50,000 persons, indicating severe accessibility issues. Other estimates indicate the need for an additional requirement of 500 urban health and family welfare centers to meet the current needs of the urban poor.

India is getting urbanized day by day. By 2030, it is estimated that 40 percent of India’s population will live in urban areas. The limit to which India would be able to take care of this large population will be determining the number in its success. In The Lancet Global Health, Sundeep Salvi and colleagues provide the opportunity to have a glimpse into India’s urban health situation by stating the medical symptoms and diagnoses and the characteristics of patients who sought treatment from qualified primary healthcare practitioners across 880 cities and towns on one day in 2011. This research work is really of great importance as it provides a national perspective on the state of both population health and health systems in the context of a developing urban India.

The distribution of illness and diagnosed conditions written in the POSEIDON study further tells us about the urban disease burden. Hypertension is an important risk cause for cardiovascular disease and was also the most commonly diagnosed medical condition at urban primary care practices. As per the researchers, one in five patients diagnosed with hypertension was younger than 40 years. These data accord with 2013 Global Burden of Disease findings that high blood pressure is the leading risk factor in attributable disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) in India.

Urban India is highly populated in the terms of healthcare providers, yet, the POSEIDON researchers explain, that not everyone can access health care.

MAJOR CAUSES OF INADEQUATE HEALTH IN URBAN

The data on patients’ characteristics highlight two urban health system problems that have received inadequate attention. First, more than half of patients visiting a doctor were male, despite the expectation that women would represent most of the patient load. There are several possible explanations for why there were fewer female patients than male patients reported. That gynecologists were not included in the study sample meant that visits by women to this kind of practitioner were not noted by the researchers. The second, problem is the lack of empowerment and financial barriers to accessing health care will affect women more than men. And third, the difficulty in accessing care from a female doctor might stop the willingness of women to seek care. One study stated that only 17% of doctors in India are women.

Issues of access to health care also affect older people. Although national surveys show that reports of ailments increase with age, only 7–9% of the visits recorded by Salvi and colleagues were made by patients older than 60 years, stating that older people are less represented in the study. Given the abundance of healthcare providers in urban India, the reasons behind the low proportion of older patients reported might be because of physical disabilities that make a visit to a health provider difficult, or the lack of financial resources to pay for health care. With life expectancy increasing across India, the issues of access and affordability of health care for older people will only become more important.

. Several research studies have reported greater ill health and low healthcare use by India’s poor people.

One study estimated that 37% of doctors in India (20% in urban areas) had inadequate or no medical training. Moreover, other studies have reported the poor quality of care offered by urban unqualified hospitals.

Nevertheless, the quality of health care access by the urban poor needs more research and policy attention, the large presence of unqualified providers in urban areas highlights the low-quality health care that poor people in urban areas receive.

3. RURAL AREA

A vast part of the population in India comprises rural areas. They have their own beliefs and theories. The majority of the villagers have the notion that some of the diseases are caused due to the presence of spirits. They, therefore, use the superstitious magicoreligious practices. However some rural people have continued to follow rich, undocumented, traditional medicine systems, in addition to the recognized cultural systems of medicine such Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and naturopathy, to maintain positive health and to prevent disease. However, the socioeconomic, cultural, and political onslaughts arising partly from the erratic exploitation of human and material resources, have endangered the naturally healthy environment e.g. access to healthy and nutritious food, clean air and water, nutritious vegetation, healthy lifestyles, and advantageous value systems and community harmony. The basic nature of rural health issues is attributed to a lack of health literature and health consciousness, poor maternal and child health services, less humanitarian thinking, and occupational hazards.

The majority of rural deaths, which are preventable, are due to infections and communicable, parasitic, and respiratory diseases. Infectious diseases dominate the morbidity pattern in rural areas (40% rural: 23.5% urban). Waterborne infections, which account for about 80% of sickness in India, make every fourth person dying of such diseases in the world, an Indian. Annually, 1.5 million deaths and loss of 73 million workdays are attributed to waterborne diseases. Illness and deaths related to pregnancy and childbirth are predominant in the rural areas, due to the following

1. Very early marriage: 72.5% of women aged 25–49 years married before 18, where the literacy rate is 80%.

2. Very early pregnancy: 75% of married women had their first pregnancy below 18 years of age.

3. All women invariably do hard physical work until late into their pregnancy.

4. Fifty-one percent of deliveries are conducted at home by an untrained traditional birth attendant.

5. Only 28% of pregnant women had their antenatal checkups before 16 weeks of pregnancy.

6. Only 67% of pregnant women had complete antenatal checks (minimum of three checkups).

4. GOVT. INITIATIVES

Intending to aim for growth, recent policy initiatives in the health sector include two programs, i.e., (1) National Rural Health Mission, and (2) National Urban Health Mission, the two forming Sarva Swasthya Abhiya\n in the health sector.

National Rural Health Mission:

National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) is an Indian health program for improving the healthcare process across rural India. NRHM was launched to address the infirmities and problems, prevailing across the primary healthcare system in the country. The mission aims to provide universal access to equitable, affordable, and quality healthcare that is accountable and at the same time responsive to all the needs of the people.

Five Planks of the Mission:

i. The Mission is expected to address the gaps in the provision of effective healthcare to rural populations with a special focus on 18 states, which have weak public health indicators and/or weak infrastructure.

ii. The mission is a shift away from the vertical health and family welfare programs to a new architecture of all-inclusive health development in which societies under different programs will be merged and resources pooled at the district level.

iii. The mission aims at effective integration of health concerns, with a focus on major determinants of health like drinking water, sanitation, and nutrition, through the drawing up of integrated district plans for Health. There is a provision for flexible funding so that, States can utilize it in the areas they feel are important.

iv. The mission provides for the appointment of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) in each village and strengthening the public health infrastructure, including outreach through mobile clinics. It emphasizes the involvement of the non-profit sector, especially in the underserved involvement of the non-profit sector, especially the underserved areas. It also aims at flexibility at the local level by providing for untied funds.

v. The mission, in its supplementary strategies, aims at fostering public-private partnerships (PPPs) for improving equity concerns, reducing out-of-pocket expenses, introducing risk pooling mechanisms by social health insurance, and taking advantage of social health traditions.

National Urban Health Mission (NUHM):

The NUHM will try its best to meet the health needs of the poor, particularly the slum dwellers, by making available to them essential primary healthcare services. This will be done by high-caliber health professionals, appropriate technology through PPP, and health insurance for the urban poor.

The NUHM will ensure the following:

i. Resources for addressing the health problems in urban areas, especially among the urban poor.

ii. Need-based city-specific urban healthcare system to meet the diverse health needs of the urban poor and other vulnerable sections.

iii. Partnership with the community for more proactive involvement in planning, implementation, and monitoring of health activities.

iv. Institutional mechanism and management systems to meet the health-related challenges of a rapidly growing urban population.

v. Framework for partnership with NGOs, charitable hospitals, and other stakeholders.

v. Two-tier system of sick pooling like:

(i) Women’s Mahila Arogya Samiti to fulfill an urgent hard-cash need for treatments;

(ii) A Health Insurance Scheme for enabling urban poor to meet medical treatment needs; etc

5. SOCIAL

Poverty

Poverty refers to a circumstance when people’s basic needs are not fulfilled. When people don’t have the necessary food to eat or clothes to wear or shelter to stay then it is termed as poverty. Life becomes very difficult for people whose income is below the poverty line (BPL).

Causes: The major reasons or causes of poverty are:

• People don’t get the proper education required for healthy well-being which often leads to poverty. People are poor because they are illiterate, and they are illiterate because they cannot pay for education. Illiteracy and poverty stay side-by-side. They both are the repercussion and effect of each other.
• In cases where the resources and opportunities are limited and the population is high, there arises a situation of unemployment which ultimately leads to poverty. Hence, they suffer through a shortage of money and are eventually not able to get a healthy lifestyle and are hence malnourished.
• Low-quality foods may lead to bad nutrition.
• Poverty also results in building stress which ultimately affects their mental health.
• The low standard of living prevails among poor people who are very less aware of being healthy.

Child labour

Child labour is a system of involving children in any economic activity. Children at the age of playing engage themselves in economic activity for their family or any other third party. Child labour can be seen prominently throughout India in a wide way.

Due to the unemployment of the parents, children do not get proper education and are forced to get involved in child labour. Educated people are less likely to engage their child as child laborers. In general, educated people want to keep up a certain level of standard and live a respectable life. On the contrary, poor and illiterate people are not even aware of the evil effects of child labour. As a result, unintentionally people push the health of such delicate children into vulnerable situations.

• Child labour is an inhuman practice. The mental growth of the children engaged in child labour is unbalanced due to overwork at this tender age.
• Children get less time and opportunity to go to school. They are deprived from education which makes them illiterate and eventually they will come forward as unemployed malnourished individuals.
• Child labour obstructs personal growth. The standard of living of people remains low.

Child marriage

Child marriage refers to the marriage of individuals below the prescribed limit of age. Marriage is to be considered legal as per the Indian Law when the groom’s age and bride’s age is 21 and above.

Though child marriage has caused problems to both boys and girls, the most severe victims of the heinous practice are the girls.

Causes: The causes or the main reason behind child marriage is the poor economic condition of the family of the marriage parties. The uneducated mentality of the girl’s family considers the girl as a load and hence wants to provide security to their daughters by the means of marriage.

Effects of child marriage on society and especially the girl:

• Due to child marriage, the girls become pregnant at an early age. Since their bodies are not properly developed to have kids, it may lead to early maternal death. In many cases, the infant baby’s health doesn’t seem good.
• Child marriage also leads to illiteracy and poverty. A girl who is married at an early age is deprived of opportunities for education and personal growth and eventually is not aware of a healthy lifestyle and will be also raising her children in the same suffocating atmosphere.
• Due to less compatibility and understanding, the relationship between the couples hampers. Conclusively affecting their mental health and pushing them to the vulnerable stages of depression, stress, etc.

Education is the only and the best way to stop child marriage. Educated people from society should raise voices against child marriage.

Gender equality and women's education are very important to cease the evil practice of child marriage. The girls become extremely dependent upon their parents because of an absence of education. As such, she is not allowed to speak against the wish of her parents. If a girl gets equal opportunity to get educated, then she will be in a better state to decide, what is best for her future.

Alcoholism

Alcoholism is well known for its dangerous addiction. It is a general term for the issues of uncontrollable consumption of alcohol. It completely damages the health of the drinker and in medical terms, it is considered a disease.

Causes:

• Childhood incidents which affect badly (trauma),
• Peer pressure,
• Difficult upbringing and childhood,
• Easy availability of alcohol,
• Showing off in front of friends,
• Spending most of the time with different types of people who are already addicted to alcohol.

The damage of alcoholism to the health:

• It hampers the drinker in both ways, physically and mentally.
• Alcoholism can cause cancer in any part of the body mainly in the kidney, liver, stomach, etc.
• It also hampers the digestive system of the body.
• Alcoholism can also create depression and behavioral change. This can affect his personal life and his relationships with friends and families.

Sanitation and cleanliness

Sanitation and cleanliness are basic problems and one of the important social problems of our country. People should clean their areas and take care of their hygiene to stay healthy and away from any diseases.

People should clean the areas of keeping food; clean their area of staying to promote cleanliness. People should maintain an adequate sewage disposal system so that public health is not put at risk.

There are many casualties of not having sanitation and proper cleanliness.

• People suffer from various diseases such as diarrhea, malnutrition, dengue, malaria, and many more.
• It also suffers children’s development.

CONCLUSION

The Health and lifestyle of an individual is something that is generally not taken that seriously. It should be taken care of as sincerely as we are taking care of our young ones. However, even after being aware of its position in our life we are taking it so lightly. Eventually, we end up regretting the deterioration of our health. So, it is gravely advisable to all take care of their health from the very beginning.