Healthcare Concepts for Women in India. Problems of the System and Ways to Solve Them

Academic Paper from the year 2021 in the subject Health - Health system, grade: 1,0, University of Applied Sciences Lübeck, language: English, abstract: This paper focusses on the issue of cultural misogyny and how this effects the health of women in India. It mainly analyses the structural and cultural problems that directly affect the women's health. Therefore, the second chapter outlines the most important facts and figures of the sub-continent. In the third chapter, the structure of the health system is discussed in further precision. The National Health Plan (NHP) is examined in more detail, and the structure and role of the healthcare centers is explained. The chapter ends with information about the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) that was created to accompany the National Health Plan, which therefore focuses more intensively on the conditions of rural areas. In more bucolic regions and hard-to-reach places, the access to medicine is difficult.

Women and girls in particular are dependent on male members of the family, as they are usually never educated or do not have the opportunity and permission to travel alone. These problems and many others that women have to endure are addressed in the following chapter. Women are immensely disadvantaged because of their gender. This relates both to the cultural aspect and the role of women and runs through the health sector. Hygiene, violence and pregnancy are dangerous factors for Indian women due to lack of education and the patriarchal society. In this regard, both some state programs and private organizations have been trying to educate and support women in their position.

For this purpose, numerous concepts have been developed to support women in the respective problem areas. Concepts, which go beyond the health-related, are to enlighten women and to help to overcome misogyny in this area retroactively and future-oriented. The concepts are evaluated in the last chapter with regard to their effect, achievement of objectives and acceptance. It will be attempted to clarify whether the individual concepts are useful and to what extent they could perhaps even be improved.