Posted: 06/04/2011
Asha Recognises World Health Day
Above: Slum children conduct health awareness on TB
This year, World Health Day falls on April 7th. Health remains one of India’s major challenges. A study commissioned by the World Bank suggests that India loses the equivalent of 6.4% of GDP every year because of health and sanitation related problems. The WHO estimates that 1000 people still die everyday of TB in India. Thousands of children die every year from preventable diseases.
The average spending on healthcare in developed countries is 9% of GDP As reported by the OECD. India, a country with 8-9% growth annually still spends less than 2% of GDP on healthcare for its citizens.
India has just six doctors and nine hospital beds for every 10,000 of its people, compared with 14 and 30 respectively in China, according to the UN. The average person is forced to pay 80% of their healthcare from their own pocket. It is no wonder that the poor are dying from ill health. Not only do they live in dangerous and deadly conditions but they can’t afford to treat illnesses. “Cities can concentrate threats to health such as inadequate sanitation and refuse collection, pollution, road traffic accidents, outbreaks of infectious diseases and also unhealthy lifestyles," says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General.
But at Asha, slum women and children are trained to educate their communities about health prevention and available health services. Health volunteers teach the community how to spot TB cases, identify pregnant women who might be at risk and where to go for treatment. They refer patients to clinics that Asha runs in the slums and to government hospitals. Children of the slum also join in health awareness and health camps and act as the eyes and ears of the community, reporting any health problem they come across.
Above: Community Health Volunteer treats a child in the slums
The result of their hard work is much healthier communities in the 50 slum areas that Asha works in. Last year, 95% of children under 5 years old were fully vaccinated and no children died of vaccine preventable diseases in these slums. This low-cost approach to healthcare really can save lives. Recently, Pooja, a health volunteer living in Dr Amdedkar Slum Colony in R.K. Puram, noticed a local boy in her lane named Sachin was looking very poorly. She immediately took him to a local hospital where he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. From then on, Pooja immersed herself in caring for Sachin, making sure he took his medication daily, bandaging his sores and providing him with wholesome meals. After 6 months of intensive treatment, Sachin is free of tuberculosis. He was lucky to have someone like Pooja, who dedicated months of her life to him – not out of obligation but out of sheer goodwill.
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Over the last years I've learnt so much. Now I'm studying at Delhi University, and I'm hoping to be a journalist. Thanks to Asha, I have the kind of life and opportunities that most people in slums would never dream of.
Usha, Ekta Vihar
