New Delhi: More than 60 per cent of people from rural areas chose to “migrate” out of their state for availing treatment for major diseases, according to a report. The ‘State of Healthcare in Rural India-2023’ study had 6,478 respondents, 75 per cent men and 25 per cent women, across six regions – north, south, northeast, east, central and west. The report also stated that at an all-India aggregate, a little over 10 per cent of rural India went to a public primary healthcare facility for serious ailments.
The majority used government-run secondary-level facilities (around 60 per cent), about 22 per cent went to a private facility, mostly hospitals, and just over five per cent consulted a private medical practitioner, the study by Transform Rural India and Sambodhi Research Pvt Ltd found.
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People in northeastern states have the highest preference for “migration” for health facilities and 84 per cent respondents in this region said they would go out of their states in search of better medical treatment, it stated.
The percentage for the eastern region was 66 and for the central region 61 with respondents expressing similar intentions, the report stated.
On the contrary, more than two-third of the respondents from the south region felt no need to “migrate out” for treatment, it stated.
The all-India level findings of the report showed that,
Almost 63 per cent of people from rural areas chose to migrate out of their state for availing treatment for major diseases.
The report stated that,
At the same time, a large majority of participants, accounting for more than 90 per cent, had expressed a preference for moving to a different district within their state rather than to a different state when faced with a serious illness. Among those with chronically ill household members, the driving factor for going out of state for treatment was the destination having better treatment facilities.
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For those without any chronically ill members at home, the majority did so because of a referral given from the place they were receiving treatment, the study found.
It stated that among the households that,
Migrated out of their home district for treatment, 51.6 per cent of the households spent less than Rs 25,000 and about 25 per cent spent between Rs 25,001 and Rs 50,000.
The report stated that according to income categories, nearly two-third of the respondents in the lower-income group prefer to go to a public secondary-level facility as compared to just over 15 per cent who preferred private hospitals.
It also showed that around 58 per cent of rural India rarely depend on home-based traditional medicine. Nearly one in three people use home-based care or traditional medicine in selective and specific cases, while just over nine per cent did so with some degree of regularity, the report stated. Shyamal Santra, associate director for public health and nutrition, Transform Rural India, said,
It is evident that there are no alternatives to improved, modernised and transformed healthcare services at primary level with a specific focus on under-developed regions to improve patient satisfaction and reducing the need of long-distance travel for treatment.
The report was prepared by the Development Intelligence Unit (DIU), a collaboration between Transform Rural India and Sambodhi Research Pvt. Ltd.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – theLGBTQ population,indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the currentCOVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water,SanitationandHygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fightmalnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health,adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues likeair pollution,waste management,plastic ban,manual scavengingand sanitation workers andmenstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India wheretoiletsare used andopen defecation free (ODF)status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched byPrime Minister Narendra Modiin 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
