Sign In
Learn bits
Economy
Mahesh

02/12/24 10:34 AM IST

India’s cities, their non-communicable disease burden

In News
  • There is a need to create healthy cities; marginalised communities and urban neighbourhoods must have access to primary health care
Poor Implementation of Policies
  • India has a national non-communicable diseases (NCD) surveillance policy, with screening for NCD risks at the community level, aimed at preventive and promotive pathways for NCD care and treatment pathways.
  • Though these policies are often subscribed from global bodies, they are poorly implemented.
  • Health systems in urban areas are overburdened, fragmented and broken, which is a function of poor urban design and rapid urbanisation.
  • With over half of the world’s population living in urban areas, this figure is projected to reach 70% by 2050.
  • India’s workforce is characterised by significant inter-State migration, with approximately 41 million people moving between States (Census 2011).
  • This dynamic process, constituting nearly 29% of the total migration rate (Periodic Labour Force Survey 2020-21), highlights the fluidity of labour markets.
  • Notably, a substantial portion of the urban population, estimated at 49% (UN-Habitat/World Bank, 2022), lives in slums, further underscoring the complex socio-economic landscape of India’s cities. 
Health Burden in Urban India
  • Poor urban communities face a triple health burden: hazardous work environments, limited health-care access, and financial vulnerability during health crises, that are exacerbated by social and economic marginalisation.
  • As for national data on health indicators, NFHS data showed a decline in tobacco and alcohol consumption from 2005-06 to 2019-21 (NFHS 3 and 5), which is alarmingly juxtaposed with a rise in hypertension, diabetes, and obesity rates (NFHS 4 and 5).
  • Symptomatically, NCDs are silent, necessitating regular screening which needs to sit within a robust health promotion and referral system.
  • The lack of understanding of the need for screening, early detection and preventive pathways for NCDs create catastrophic out-of-pocket (OOP) expenditure, in turn jeopardising financial stability and impacting the overall livelihood and life trajectory of the entire family. 
  • Health in marginalised communities stems from social identities, work and employment, language, migration status, and accessing primary health systems. 
  • In a country whose foundation of health systems sits on strong primary health care, it is problematic that the availability and access to publicly-run primary health care are abysmally poor among urban marginals.
  • Public health systems are, by design, supposed to cater to all, and, most specifically, to the lowest 40% of the population.
  • The idea of universal health coverage fails. Preventing OOP expenditure fails.
  • And our urban marginals are laden with poor health outcomes, which, for many, runs across generations.
  • This necessitates having an active dialogue between employers, municipalities, traffic systems, schools, as well as health systems.
  • As interconnected systems, there is a need to co-create solutions with the community, and for the community. 
Way forward
  • This is the time for State-level action plans for NCD health care, which lay an emphasis on access to primary health care for marginalised communities and poor urban neighbourhoods — migrants, informal workforce, people living in informal settlements.
  • We need to join hands with urban local bodies, the city administration, health departments and community-based organisations, experts and think tanks and discuss ideas to create healthy cities for all.
  • This should also lead to a scaling up of ideas for community-led, community-based NCD surveillance systems for marginalised urban settlements. 
Source- The Hindu

More Related Current Affairs View All

08 Jan

Airline pilots’ body calls attention to lithium battery fire risk

'Recently, the International Federation of Air Line Pilots’ Associations (IFALPA) issued three position papers on the fire risk due to the use of lithium-ion batteries in air

Read More

08 Jan

V. Narayanan, who is set to take over as ISRO Chairman

'V. Narayanan, a noted rocket and spacecraft propulsion expert, is set to succeed S. Somanath as the next Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).' Dr. Narayanan

Read More

08 Jan

Rat-hole mining

'Several workers have been trapped for more than 12 hours in a coal “rat-hole” mine after it was flooded with water  in Dima Hasao district of Assam.' The rescu

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps