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paper 5

WOMEN AND HEALTH CARE SYSTEM

Women constituting more than half of the total population of Asia and performing within their present social roles play an important function in the health care and nutrition of the family and the community. It is they who are responsible for the food in-take of their family (based of course on their very low income). It is also they who take their sick to hospitals or dispensaries, if these are available in the community, or in many cases, they tend the sick at home. And because of their low economic capability and their low educational level, women often turn to mystical and superstitious beliefs, often indulging in rituals and ceremonies in treating certain illnesses and diseases.

Health care conditions in most Asian countries are affected by the inter-play of health services and socio-economic factors. The present health system in our countries are composed of an indigenous system and western medical model which relies heavily on curative medicines. But the major diseases in our countries are of the preventive type, e.g. fever, worm infections, diarrhea, typhoid, skin infections, etc. The root cause of most of these diseases is the living standard of the majority of the people in our countries: unsanitary condition, lack of good supply of water, inability to eat nutritious food due to low income, or knowledge of food values, etc.

Indigenous health care has been a part of the life of the people for thousands of years. In our region it has played a vital role in the health care system of the people. With the introduction of the capitalist system, the use and practices of indigenous medicine gradually declined being replaced by the western

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health care system.

The Western health care model is dependent on hospitals equipped with sophisticated facilities, highly trained personnel, and drugs. Most of the more well equipped hospitals in our Asian countries are located in the urban areas and thus do not cater to the majority of the population who live in rural places. Most doctor workers prefer to work in the urban-based hospitals, consequently, their services too are not available to the majority of the people.

The Western system of health care has also invaded the education and training of doctor personnel in our countries. Thus the training emphasises the curative aspect, which then can be considered irrelevant as the diseases prevailing in our environs are mostly preventive. The implication then is that doctors in our poor, underdeveloped countries are trained to serve not the sick people of our countries but those of the West. So our trained medical workers -both doctors and nurses and medical technicians-flock to places abroad where they are very much needed, too, at lower remuneration in comparison to the Western nationals. Then we wonder why there is such a phenomenon as brain drain in our societies.

Drugs in the western health care system plays a very important role. And even in our own countries, medical drugs are popular because of 17 their immediate effect on the patient, and 2) their availability in package or table form (mass produced).

The drug scene all over the world is dominated by multinational corporations (MNCs). Armed with patent rights, brand names and multiple formulations, these propriety firms have succeeded in brain washing the .profession into prescribing medicines which might cost anywhere between 100% to 300% above the manufacturing cost.

The mass media has also been used by the MNCs in popularising their drugs and pharmaceuticals among the people. But even then, medical health care along this pattern is and can only be available to the privileged minority of our people who can afford the drugs and hospitalisation. And with the shelving of our indigenous medical and health system, it means that majority of our people are not cared for.

Thus what is needed in our countries is an integration of the indigenous medical care system and western health care system. Furthermore, since the major diseases in our countries are of the preventive type

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the health care system should concentrate more on the preventive aspects of diseases. In this respect women and men should be educated so the proper steps can be taken to prevent the occurrence and spread of such diseases. The training of paramedical workers can also serve our health care purposes and this would not need the prohibitive costs which training of doctors and nurses in the western model entail.

Women should also be motivated to breast-feed their babies rather than bottle feed them. For in this way, the babies become more healthy and the family will not be caught by the intensive “come-ons” of companies advertising their dehydrated milk for babies. Mothers, too, should be taught about the values of food available and within their economic reach. Saying this, we do not lose sight of the truth that the nutritional level of individuals/families cannot be bettered unless their economic status is elevated. And this can be done only when the whole economic and social structure shall be transformed.