Essay - Class - 03-Notes
Essay - Class - 03-Notes
Essay - Class - 03-Notes
Body Para 1
• Don’t use theory/data/examples.
• Framing Ques: use key terms of topic.
• Framing Ans: don’t use key terms of topic.
• Start with relevant Quote.
4. Use the topic as the last line of the Intro & Conclusion.
- has a very powerful impact.
BODY PARA 1
Nelson Mandela said that health is not a question of income or gender, but a fundamental human
right. This emphasizes the fact that health is not a luxury but an inalienable necessity. Its presence
or absence affects everyone, regardless of age, gender or race. Without just and equitable healthcare,
the basic human right to live itself is violated. However, inequalities exist in the ability of different
sections to be able to access and afford health care. Such inequalities create a divide between the
rich and the poor, between men and women, even between the young and the old. The deprived
sections suffer due to a lack of qualified medical professionals, financial constraints, malnutrition and
even social stigmas and discrimination. These deprivations create a cascading effect, whereby
diseases, anemia, stunting and mortality are significantly higher within these sections and become
worse across successive generations. Thus proving that injustice in healthcare is the most inhumane
form of inequality.
When the COVID-induced lockdown was enforced in March 2020, the country came to a grinding
halt. As markets, educational institutions and transport shut down, people faced unprecedented
problems and inconveniences. But perhaps the worst affected were People with Disabilities (PwD).
Policy makers forgot that PwD’s often need caregivers to assist them in accessing medicines,
treatment and in performing everyday tasks. Thus, people with vision impairment could not reach
hospitals, people with cognitive disability could not access government grants from their bank
accounts, people with impaired movement could not even move without assistance. These “Missing
Millions”, invisible in government policies and budgets, became silent and innocent victims of the
inequalities embedded in our health policies. Proving that injustice in healthcare is the most
shocking and inhumane form of inequality.
India is a country where injustice in healthcare is so common that countless people become fatalities
of its inherent inequalities. The rural-urban divide is visible in the facts that only 37% of rural
Indians have access to In-Patient Department (IPD) facilities within a 5 km distance, only 25% of
dispensaries and 20% of doctors are operational in rural areas. The difference between haves and
have-nots is visible in the fact that 95.5% of births occurring in the richest 20% of households in
India are attended to by skilled birth attendants, while the figure is just 64% for the poorest 20%.
These disparities cause irreversible and generational damages to millions of helpless innocents.
Such damage is visible in the facts that India is home to around 4 crore stunted children and 53% of
women between 15-49 years are anemic. Proving without doubt that injustice in healthcare is the
most shocking and inhumane form of inequality.
Savita Halappanavar was a happy and successful 31-year-old Indian woman living in Ireland. In
2012, she was 17 weeks pregnant when she experienced a miscarriage. Despite repeated requests for
an abortion, the medical staff refused to terminate the pregnancy because they believed that the
foetus had a heartbeat. She developed sepsis and her condition deteriorated rapidly, yet the abortion
was denied because Irish laws prohibited abortion. In this tussle between law and life, the law won
and Savita lost her life in October 2012. Her case highlights the issue of women's rights in cases
where the mother's life is at risk. And serves as an undying reminder of the fact that injustice in
healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane form of inequality.
The first inequality in healthcare arises with regard to accessibility to medical facilities. Ideally,
healthcare systems should have universal coverage. However, many people lack access to medical
services, especially those residing in remote areas- in rural India, only 37% of the people have access
to In-Patient Department facilities. This can be addressed by increasing the presence of frontline
health workers, who belong to the local community and directly provide health services to that
community. For instance, governments in India utilize the services of ASHA workers to provide
community health services in rural areas. ASHA workers are trained female community health
activists who are selected from the village itself and work as an interface between the community and
the formal public health system.