Does Health Policies and Infrastructure Ensure a Better Health Status? A Study on Women's Health of Meghalaya

Abstract

Inequalities in the social and economic status of men and women disproportionately deprive women and children of good health. Health is an important factor that contributes to human wellbeing and economic growth. The slogan "Promoting women's health” denotes the significance to fundamental human rights such as the Right to Education, the Right to Employment and Equal pay for work, and the Right to participate in the political life of one's community. The present study was carried out to study the health policies and infrastructure in reference to women health care. The objective of the study was to study the health status of women, to assess the medical infrastructure available in the study areas, and to determine the government aided schemes on rural women health care. The hypothesis considered includes arena of unawareness of the women folk on government aided health schemes and ignorance of the women on their health results in poor health and ultimately lead to poor status of women. The study area was selected from Umsning Block, Jirang Block, and Umling Block of Ri-Bhoi District, Meghalaya. Two villages each from the three blocks were randomly selected. The villages are Myrdon Village, Raitong Village, Old Jirang Village, Paham Village, Hatimara Village and Umlengpur killing Village. Simple Random Sampling method was adopted for the study and the sample size is 100. The findings of the study reveal that there is an acute shortage of medical specialist and paramedical staff in most of the CHCs, PHCs and Sub-Centre's. The study urges the importance of an awareness programmes and seminars on women health issues covering pre-natal and post-natal check-ups in this unexplored district of Meghalaya.