Marcette Buttigieg
The Celebration of this International day was started nearly 30 years ago. The aim was to mobilise women and those who care about them to demand that women everywhere should have access to the required health care. And, to uphold their right to take decisions about their own health.
In the field of women’s health care, some progress has been made over the past years. But equity in healthcare for women is still a long way in India. Women face a wide range of health problems: nutrition-related issues such as anaemia; infectious diseases, and non-infectious diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease; in addition, issues related to pregnancy and childbirth; and diseases affecting the reproductive system, especially in later in life.
Women provide 70-80% of healthcare in India. Yet they do not focus on their own health, for a variety of reasons: work overburden and home care responsibilities do not afford them time to access necessary treatments. They feel guilty about taking time for themselves when they are the sole care-giver for a family member. In poor families, they do not get enough food as they ensure that other family members get the better part.
Another factor, that makes women hesitant in approaching medical care, is that the majority of doctors are men. Women are hesitant to get examined by male doctors. They, therefore, continue to ‘put up’ with their difficulties, unaware whether the signs of some serious illness or just ordinary illness. Many tend to approach doctors only in extreme cases. Many may not realize that urethral or uterine bleeding could be a symptom of cancer of the lower intestine or of the uterus.
What action can be taken to ensure that women have access to the needed health care as an entitlement? Women’s education, starting with school girls, needs to be the top priority. It will lead to awareness of health issues and proper knowledge to take appropriate and timely care with confidence.
Women need to be encouraged to join the health profession as doctors, not just as nurses or technicians. Governments must allocate an adequate amount of the health budget for women’s health care. Men, as well as women, must demand this from their elected representatives; because the improved health of women will lead to improved health of the whole nation.
Let us, therefore, grow in our knowledge and understanding of what affects women’s health and voice our demand for equal health rights for men and women throughout the country.
(Ms. Buttigieg is a professional nurse and is active as a skilled health promoter particularly in the health sector in central and north India)