The Importance Of Health Education In India

The process of health education is defined as something that imparts information about health in such a way that the people are motivated to use the information for the protection and promotion of health and individuals, their families and communities.

- Aritra Mitra

Making the people aware of their health needs and risks, payment options to reduce their out-of-pocket medical expense and others are some of the aspects on which even a well-educated, city-bred person may need some help. India must utilise the access of its community health workers, Anganwadi and Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA), to inform and assure people of the options they have, failing which even the best technology and most efficient staff will fall short of making an Impact.

Overview

India needs a multipronged approach towards training medical corps. For the medical training providers, the most important criterion to adhere is the quality of education. However, cost is a bigger factor for the aspirants. India has 492 medical colleges, out of which 233 are government-owned and produce around 62,960 MBBS doctors. While aspirants hoard at the government medical colleges offering subsidised education, the lack of infrastructural upgrade is a major concern. Private institutions have better infrastructure but charge a little higher. However, no institution can teach an aspiring doctor to be empathetic towards the need of people. As a result, the mandatory rural posting is often considered to be a compulsory dose of quinine rather than an opportunity to gather first hand information for a better service.

In 2018, the government launched Ayushman Bharat, an ambitious healthcare protection scheme that will cover 10 lakh families below the poverty level. According to a study pub-lished in the Indian Journal of Public Health, India would need 2.07 million registered doctors to achieve the World Health Organisation directed doctor population ratio of 1:1000 by 2030. Effectively, this would thrust a growth of 151% between 2010 and 2030 against a growth rate of 14.41% until 2014.