Population and Health Problems,Health education and Empowerment
Mppsc Mains Gs Paper 2 Part B Unit 5
Population
A population is the number of organisms of the same species that live in a particular geographical area at the same time with the probability of interbreeding.
In demography the world population is the total number of human beings living currently.
The world is facing a major challenge of rapid increase in human population since the last many decades.
- The world population was established to have reached 7.10 billion in July 2021.
- India is the second most populated country in the world after China, having 1.38 billion people which is 17.7 % of the world’s population.
- Due to the increase in the population day by day it has a great impact on our economy and Healthcare system which is one of the causes for slow development in the country.
Causes of overpopulation in India – There is two main causes of overpopulation In our country
- The birth rate is still higher than the death rate as we have successfully reduced the death rate in the country but the same cannot be happening with the birth rate.
- Fertility rate due to population policies and other measures has been falling, but even then it is much higher when we compare it with other countries.
Beside these reasons there are some other reasons that leads to overpopulation in our country –
- Early marriage and universal marriage system.
- Poverty and illiteracy.
- Primitive cultural norms of certain religions.
- Illegal migration – for example there is continuous migration from Bangladesh that have resulted in an increase in the population density of Assam, West Bengal and other neighbouring States.
Factors of population distribution in India
- Physical factors such as climate, terrain,And availability of water.
- North Indian plains, deltas and Coastal Plains have suitable climate for agriculture, so they have a higher proportion of population settlement.
- Mountain and forested regions of Southern and Central Indian states, Himalayan states and North Eastern states are less populated.
- Development of irrigation in Rajasthan, availability of minerals, energy resources in Jharkhand, development of transport network in Southern State, resulted in moderate to high proportion of population settlement.
- Social and economic and historical factors
- Traditional settled agriculture and early human settlement has resulted in a large population near Plains and coastal areas of the country. Moreover the British government initially developed in the coastal areas which resulted in large settlements in the same region.
- Industrialisation and urbanisation
- Metro cities in India have high concentrations of population due to industrial development and urbanization. This is because a large number of people have migrated from rural to urban areas.
Phases of growth of Indian Population
India has total four phases in growth of its population
- First phase (1901 to 1921)
- It is referred to as the period of steady population growth.
- In between 1911 to 1921 India recorded a negative growth rate.
- During this period the birth rate and death rate were high, and the reason behind this was poor Health and Medical Services, illiteracy and inefficient distribution of food.
- Second Phase ( 1921 to 1950)
- It is referred to as a period of steady population growth.
- In this phase improved health and sanitation facilities were the responsible cause for study growth in population.
- In this phase the birth rate remained high.
- Third phase (1951 to 1981)
- This phase is referred to as population explosion in India, in this phase rapid fall in death rate but high birth rate causes the population explosion.Moreover improved living conditions and initial development in health and sanitation services was the primary cause for declining death rate.
- In this phase the migration from Tibet, Bangladesh, Nepal,and Pakistan was very high.
- Fourth phase (After 1981 till Present)
- In this phase the population growth rate has a definite sign of slowing down and at the same time is increasing gradually too.It happened so because improving female literacy rate and empowerment and increase in the marriage age were the crucial reasons.
Effects of overpopulation in India – The population explosion in our country has proved to be one of the biggest hindrance for its success in economic planning and development following are the main effects of the population explosion –
- Problem of investment requirement – Indian population is growing at the rate of 1.8 % per annum and in order to achieve a Given rate of increase in per capita income,larger investment is needed.
- Effect on per capita income – Due to increase in population and its Rapid growth the per capita income is increasing day by day, as the income is not increasing with respect to the population.
- Effect on food problems – Increasing population has been root cause of food problems, as it hampers economic development in two ways
- People do not get sufficient quantities of food due to low availability, which affects their health.
- Storage of food grains obliged us to import food grains from abroad, so a large part of foreign exchange is still spent on it.
- Problem of unemployment – Large size of population results in large army of labour force.Due to shortage of capital resources, it becomes difficult to provide employment to the entire population.
- Low standard of living – Due to Rapid growth in population, it accounts for low standard of living because even bare necessities of life are not available adequately.
- Poverty – It is the most important factor that derives due to population burst. People have to spend a large portion of their income for bringing up(basic necessities) and this results in less savings.
- Social problems like migration.
- Overpopulation puts an extra burden on natural resources.
- Increase in the crime rate.
Health
The World Health Organisation defines health as a state of complete physical, mental and social well being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.
Healthy person can be defined as, one who is free from social mental and psychological stress moreover he should be physically fit.
At present India’s Healthcare system consists of a mix of public and private sector, who provide Health Services.
Networks of Healthcare facilities at the primary, secondary and tertiary level run mainly by the State government in India and it provides free or very low cost Medical Services.
Challenges faced by Indian Healthcare system
- A weak primary Healthcare sector where lack of infrastructure & doctor’s availability is very poor.
- Unequally distributed skilled human resource and shortfall of specialist doctors across the country.
- Health care services are unequally distributed i.e. urban areas have 73% of Public Hospital beds and the rural area has only 27%, even though around 70% of the country’s population lives in the rural areas.
- Low public spending on Healthcare – our government has spending only 1.15% of GDP on health which is very low when compared with other countries.
- There is a large unregulated private sector where private practitioners are the first to contact in both rural and urban areas for earning money.
- There is no proper information system for collecting data of the private sector.
- Corruption and weak governance and lack of sense of accountability can also be considered as a cause for the declining health care system in India.
Health education
It is an education which promotes the understanding of health among individuals by which they are able to maintain their personal health is called health education.
According to WHO – It is any combination of learning experience designed to help individuals and communities, improve their health by increasing their knowledge for influencing their attitude.
The health education lays on two main principles –
- Community involvement in Planning health education is essential.
- Promotion of self esteem should be an integral component of all health education programs.
General information – Medical education in the global context has evolved over a period of time and so in India, but with changing community needs, educational advancement and Technological revolution, we need to update the method of imparting knowledge and skills to students.
The medical education in India can be traced back to the era of charaka and sushruta, who had their separate doctrine in treating and teaching indigenous systems of medicine in ancient India – the Ayurveda.
Important data related with health in India (MPPSC)
- In India total medical colleges are 542, and 64 standalone PG medical colleges are recognised by the Medical Council of India (Now MCI known as National Medical Commission).
- The total number of Medical College in Madhya Pradesh are 22.(Govt. & Private).
- The doctor to population ratio in India is 1:1456, against the W H O Recommendation of 1:1000 of( as per economic survey 2020).
- In Madhya Pradesh the doctor patient ratio is 1:16899.
- There are a total 8242 health and Wellness centres in rural areas and 1734 in urban areas.
- Recently the government has taken various initiatives in the health and Pharmaceutical sector such as allowing hundred percent FDI for Pharma sector, Greenfield investment opportunity, and other flagship schemes to give boost to this sector.
- India ranks 145th among 195 countries in terms of quality and accessibility of Healthcare.
- National health policy 2017 was launched by the government of India to bring improvement in our Healthcare system, by increasing health expenditure from existing 1.5 % to 2.5 % of GDP, and it has also suggested state governments to increase healthcare expenditure 8% or more of their budget by 2025.Its primary purpose is to strengthen trust of common man in public Healthcare system.
Empowerment
It means encouraging and allowing individuals to take personal responsibility for improving the way they want to do their jobs and contribute to the organisational goals.
It has 4 elements –
- Information
- Knowledge
- Power
- Rewards
In the health context, the World Health Organisation defines Empowerment as a process through which people gain greater Control over decisions and actions affecting their health and should be seen as both an individual and a Community Process.
