Patriarchy and Women's Health

 Nowhere is patriarchy in India more manifested than in the sorry state of women's health. Especially reproductive health. The pressure of bearing, birthing and tending to babies and also doing other work has a telling effect on the reproductive tract of women and they suffer from various gynaecological problems. Due to a culture of silence imposed by patriarchy they are not able to speak about these problems and due to poverty they are not able to seek redress as the government public health system provides only obstetric services but does not provide diagnosis and treatment for gynaecological problems. Over production of babies, over work and lack of treatment for gynaecological problems combine to reduce their blood haemoglobin levels. The results of the Fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS V) of 2019-21 not only show that 57% of the women surveyed in the age group of 15-49 years are anaemic but what is even more shocking is that there has been a 7% increase in the proportion of women who are anaemic from the results of NFHS IV conducted in 2014-15. The statewise data is shown in the map below. Lakshwadeep has the lowest proportion of anaemic women closely followed by Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Kerala and and Goa. Ladakh has the highest proportion of anaemic women at a shocking 92.8% followed by West Bengal at 71.4%.

This is a horrendous state of affairs and not much is being done to remedy it. There are a few NGOs like ours (https://lnkd.in/ddVhjjxr), which are doing something in this regard but they can only scratch the surface and unless the government health system substantially improves its gynaecological health services, women will continue to suffer

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