According to a survey conducted by Wockhardt, India spends 4% of its GDP on healthcare which is one of the lowest in the world. A spending of 3% by private concerns and 1% by the Government is too low and therefore both quality and quantity of healthcare suffer.
Another major issue is that there are only about six lakh doctors in India who serve the entire population of the country with a ratio around 1:1800 against a prescribed WHO standard of 1:600. As far as nurses are concerned, there is a need for additional 2.8 million nurses.
“When it comes to hospital infrastructure, the WHO standard is a minimum of 3.5 hospital beds for every 1000 population, India has only 0.9 hospital beds available for every 1000 population. The extent of healthcare facilities available is thus very low.”
Poor health index
A lot of healthcare problems occur because of water pollution. “Once the unhygienic waste gets mixed with usable water, the entire water source gets polluted, resulting in diseases like Cholera and Hepatitis. In fact, 50% of the water-borne diseases occur because human waste is not being disposed off in an eco-friendly manner.
“To improve the health index of the entire society, we have initiated a series of programmes, such as bio-toilets, Mobile 1000, E-Learning, Shudhu water purification tablets and Khel Khel Mein Toy library.”
Bio-Toilets
It is estimated that 10 million children under the age of five die around the world every year due to improper sanitation. Of these, 2.4 million children are from India. Bio-toilets have a critical role to play in preventive healthcare in order to ensure that the waste is discharged from a toilet in an eco-friendly manner. If we talk about Capex, bio-toilets cost around 20% more than that of normal ones, as the cost of developing the bacteria is high. But the payback is much better.
“There are a lot of advantages of installing bio-toilets. The zero waste technology enables disposal of entire waste at source; thus, doing away with the need for connecting to sewer tanks and finally, discharging into the river. In bio-toilets, human waste is directly converted into methane gas which can further be used as fuel. The residual water can easily be used for irrigation.” It is eco-friendly, 100% hazard free and maintenance free, functions efficiently at sub-zero – 550C and has a lifespan of 50 years. This improves the overall health index of the area.
The specifications may vary as per requirements. A household toilet of six seats would require 200lt tank, while a single seat may need 25lt tank. A community toilet for 300 users, would require four eight-seat bio-toilet connected to an 8000lt tank for each gender.
“We have installed around 170 bio-toilets across the country – five in Chennai and 10 more in process; 120 household toilets in a village in Thane district and 30 in Jharkhand.
“The areas for installation are selected usually after being approached by the government or the NGOs. Soon, bio-toilets will be installed in the eight to nine areas identified. I am sure this will improve the situation.”
[box type=”shadow” ]Bio-toilet is a waste management solution, which seeks to alleviate the need for expensive sewage treatment and waste management. A 100% eco-friendly and cost effective solution, it decomposes the solid waste into water and bio-gas.[/box]
India has more than 600,000 villages and only 22,000 primary healthcare centres for all the villagers across the country. About 30% of the village population has to travel 30km to avail the primary health facility. No medical care facility is available even for cold cough, diarrhoea or Malaria. Adding to this no proper transportation facility is available to patients.
“We have introduced Mobile 1000 programme – a convenient and free of cost hospital at the doorstep. A mobile healthcare van is operated by a doctor, pharmacist and driver and currently there are 85 vans in operation with each covering 20 villages a week. Thus, more than two million people are able to avail these services annually. Presently, these vans operating in 12 states have GPS tracking facility.
“We have got very good response from people and the vans run at 90% uptime. The 10% fluctuation comes because of manpower unavailability at the right time.”
“We have e-Learning programs, where students are taught through interactive video tutorials. This is for children studying in Std I to Std X. This also helps raise awareness at the grassroots level. The videos consisting of actual images and demos with detailed description, help improve their IQ level.
“It has been observed that the e-Learning classes help achieve better academic results by around 30%. Presently, e-Learning classes are being provided to 43 schools in Aurangabad and Thane district.
“We also have a World Peacekeepers’ Movement to spread world peace/harmony. About nine lakh peacekeepers are supporting this movement on facebook. It is a part of the world peace army. At present, we rank sixth and aim to reach the third or fourth position. We are adding about 1000 peacekeepers a day. The movement is small but a significant step towards achieving world peace and harmony.
“We believe in whatever good we do to others, we get peace in return”.
“Moksha, another initiative taken earlier, has been discontinued as we failed in reducing the price of sanitary napkins from two rupees to one rupee. Through Moksha we wanted to hit the bottom of the pyramid at the village level but we could not succeed.
“We have Shuddhu water purification tablets in our agenda and Khel khel mein toy library which we are about to start in eight urban slums areas of Delhi. Children aged between five to 10 years come with toys, and we teach them good values and good habits. Now we are bringing this to Mumbai slums too.”
To meet the rising healthcare challenge, there is need for serious collaboration and coordination between the Central & State governments, NGOs and privates/public companies. Governmen
ts have got funds, private companies have the expertise in efficient management and NGOs have got efficient, skilled and passionate manpower. “Hence, with appropriate collaboration and coordination among the three, we can definitely improve the situation in record time. There will be an accountability for each then.
With ‘Swachchh Bharat’ as its mission, the present government is very pro-active on sanitation. At present, policies are just being drafted, implementation is yet to begin. The policies are in the right direction – towards better sanitation. Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu has also extended full support for bio-toilet installations. “We have not been approached so far, but if approached we will help install bio-toilets to fulfil the mission.
“In the ‘Clean Ganga’ project, we can install bio-toilets around the river that will curb the waste at the source itself and such waste won’t reach to the river and help keep the Ganga clean.”