Major Problems in Dealing with Health in Rural India and Advise on how to Address the Problems - Article Example

Even though the government has introduced various health policies for example the 2005 National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) Policy to the Indias in rural areas as a way of providing quality and affordable health care, low consideration has been given to the system of medicine in rural areas (Kaveri 47). For example, modern medical training, an initiative that is funded by local people has failed to meet the needs of rural dwellers that form the biggest percentage of Indian residents. This is based on lack of proper skills by practitioners to provide adequate health care.

For example, 79 % of the practitioners in rural areas who practice allopathic medicine have no appropriate training (Ashok et al 24). Poor accessibility of health care One of the major causes of problem when dealing with health care in Tamil Nadu and other regions is lack of adequate access to health care (Ashok et al 13).This is based on the fact that most of the health care centers are aimed at benefiting the urban dwellers and the upper class (World Health Organization 25). While the health care in urban areas is been provided by properly equipped dispensaries and hospital that are managed by corporate and other organizations, health services in rural areas especially those related to family planning and immunization are addressed by rural health centers that have inadequate facilities leading to high rate of child.

Misallocation of financial resources and inadequate public expenditure on health Only 0.9% of the gross domestic product (GDP) is allocated to public health which is not adequate to meet the health needs of rural people Considering that more than 80% of the Indians reside in rural areas, and only 10% of the health budget is directed to rural areas, it is clear that the health problems are real challenges in rural areas (World Health Organization 25). Commercialization of health services Due to the failure of the government to provide adequate drugs in rural hospitals, rural residents have continued to seek the services of the private sector.

This is despite the contributions of the public towards national budget through income and value added taxes. Based on the high level of poverty by rural residents, it has become a challenge to acquire drugs from the private health care providers. In the same way, drugs that are not recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) have dominated Indian market as dealers focus at maximizing their revenue (World Health Organization 17). Important advice to solving these problems In order to ensure the health of rural people residing in Tamil Nadu and other states is enhanced, it is vital for the government to provide cheap cell phones that are connected to the internet.

In this way, communication between health providers will be improved. In addition, it would help in bringing about accessibility of the hospitals by the rural residents . Another way of enhancing accessibility of health care is incresing the number of mobile vans that are already been in use in India. Such vans will also be essential in entering areas where public health services have not reached. It is also important to ensure that states appropriately uses the budgetary allocation of the finacial resources allocated by NRHM.

For example, in 2008-09 fiscal year, out of 33.5% of the resources allocated to Uttar Pradesh, 41.7% was unspent (Kaveri, 36). The lack of spending of the