Creating
health awareness
Sir,
The
proportion of the people in the world
living in cities is escalating and in our
country population is increasing everyday
far beyond our expectation and is rather
turning explosive.
In result,
we have observed rapid urbanization of
the cities due to fast migration of
people from rural areas. The reasons are
obvious i.e lack of modern facilities
including education, health and
economical condition of the villages of
the country as whole. They play a vital
role to convert the cities into slums
even at the cost of endangering their
lives. Lack of food, clean water,
shelter, over crowding, in adequate waste
disposal of the household and industries,
heavy traffic, polluted air, street
violence and introlerance now becomes the
order of the day and the city life
becomes very risky. Due to this, much new
type of infectious diseases and
increasing day by day. Important ones to
be mentioned here are fatal viral
respiratory disease, bronco-asthama,
allergic dematitis, mad cow infection
(which England had witnessed recently),
HIV infection which causes AIDS,
Homorrhagic fever due to unknown reason,
new form of cholera, Dangue, Malaria, new
type of Hepatitis C, B & E etc.
Others are water born diseases, diseases
due to adulteration of food articles, and
also due to excess use of chemical
fertilizers in lieu of more production of
wheat, rice, vegetables and fruits.Now
the latest is the presence of pesticides
in mineral water and soft drinks. This
all has happened due to non-checked
proliferation of systems.
Now the
health of the urban population deserves
our urgent attention. If we continue to
let our cities grow without proper
planning, local Government authorities
will be over whelmed and unable to
provide even the most basic conditions
for health such as housing, employment
and safe environment. At this time, when
we are at the verge of population
explosion, the health of city population
is a challenge for all concerned with
human development particularly in
developing countries. The conditions of
"ill health" in the cities have
jeopardized the very hope of better
hygienic living for which the people of
this country are crying for. Now the time
is fastly running out from our hands and
if we are not awakened just now then
things will be beyond our control in
coming years.
Under
these conditions, the role of NGOs is
very very important. This can only happen
when the respective Municipalities of
cities & towns, health deptt. and
other concerning Govt. agencies, media of
course plays a vital role in this regard.
T.V., Radio, Newspaper should come
forward with a zeal & missionary
spirits with the co-ordination of real
dedicated and selfless NGOs (Govt. should
identify work oriented and quality based
NGOs) should sit together and chalk out
comprehensive and effective health care
system policy for rural and urban
population separately. They should try to
create health consciousness among the
mass in general and the people living
under slum conditions and low-income
groups in particular to keep the cities
hygienically neat and clean.
First of
all the kind attention of the Govt.
should be drawn towards the shortcomings
of the concerned authorities, those who
are responsible regarding the sanitation,
health & hygiene of the city to
provide civic facilities to their
citizens.
Yours
etc...
Gurmeet Singh
Channi Himat
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