Government has very important role through regulatory framework, the sector needs a paradigm shift in the way different stakeholders of the industry, including private and public companies think.
India is one of the fastest developing economies and one among its many virtues lie in its demographic strength.
In these evolving times, it is crucial to turn this virtue into an advantage for the long-term viability of the nation, both economically and socially. The first step in this direction is dependent on how well the governing bodies cater to the basic necessities of the large population, whether it is good nutrition, security or eradication of poverty, illiteracy and unemployment.
Another vital factor, for achieving the sustainable development goals for India is the development of a quality healthcare system. Let me explain. As per Economic Surveys from 2015 to 2017, the government expenditure on healthcare is estimated to be just about 1.5% of the country’s GDP, which is abysmally low compared to developed countries. If we further analyze, on one hand we have fantastic success stories in the healthcare sector like Narayana Hrudayalaya & new age products like Practo but on the other hand, we also have a dismal figure that points to one of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world.
One of the basic necessities in any community is provision of adequate healthcare. Among many other requirements of development like poverty alleviation, illiteracy and employment equally important aspect of development is healthcare.
The government recently approved the National Health Policy 2017, with a goal to achieve the overall health and well-being of the country, through a combination of preventive, promotive healthcare policies and making available good quality health care services to the public. One of the primary aims of the policy is also to increase the government expenditure on health care in a time bound way to 2.5% of the GDP, while bringing down infant mortality rates, increase life expectancy, create a trained medical workforce, etc.
The Big Picture:
In order to realize the sustainable development goals of India, it is essential for different stakeholders of the country including private and public companies to work with every other stakeholder in the ecosystem including NGOs, niche health care outfits and providers, as well as communities across regions. It is necessary to create a conducive environment in which existing government schemes and resources are effectively implemented, while overcoming last mile connectivity and delivery challenges. At Srinivasan Services Trust (SST), we believe in focusing on preventive healthcare programs, raising awareness and bringing about systematic changes in the public mind-set with respect to attitudes towards hygiene that become permanent and are passed on from one generation to another. I, therefore, would like to outline, a few themes where Indian companies ought to focus while redefining ‘Healthcare CSR in India’:
a. Primary focus on prevention, not cure: Companies tend to make philanthropic donations to medical set-ups for major treatments. However, there is a need to adopt and promote preventive approach to healthcare. Beyond setting up health check-up camps, companies can organize ‘awareness programs’ for villages and communities in which they operate. In the light of Government’s push for ‘Swachh Bharat campaign’, companies can establish door-to-door contact programs for villagers, where ill-effects of open defecation and how practicing hygiene can bring medical expenses down is explained.
Experience of SST in healthcare is that quality healthcare could be achieved if the primary focus is on prevention. Our experience is that by adopting preventive healthcare activities for long term impact. SST has organized healthcare programs for communities. But creating more awareness programs does not lead us to the expected impact. SST’s effort has been to make the people advocate the practices. Persuading communities to adopt practices needs trust, closer attention and interventions with them. Awareness programs will become successful only when the preventive healthcare practices is fully understood and known by the communities. This happens when there is trust between the advocating agencies creating awareness and the community. The trust building requires time, selfless services and clear goals.
In the case of SST villages, some of the major results of preventive health care have been:
Easy access to primary health care and awareness about the importance of proper sanitation, hygiene and nutrition has meant improvement in the general health standards of the communities. Now, over 3,700 villages have access to safe drinking water. Infant Mortality Rate and Maternal Mortality Rate are 0.15 per 1000 live births and 5.09 per lakh respectively. As against 54% of the women being anemic 6 years ago, today anemia is down to 18.2%. Malnourishment among children below 5 years of age has been reduced from 18% to 3.6%.
b. Focus on primary illnesses: A lot of times companies tend to focus on high decibel illnesses such as Cancer. However, research shows that normal sounding conditions such as Anemia and Malnutrition are still prevalent on a large scale in India and cause staggering deaths. Companies need to focus on creating awareness around these.
c. Involve the local community: It is no secret that there is a lack of qualified and trained medical staff to deliver healthcare services to rural areas, where even today more than 70% of the population resides. In such a scenario, companies need to focus on primary health care by training and involving the local youth to advise and attend people on basic and paramedic treatments such as first aid, sugar testing, blood testing, etc.
d. Fostering traditional methods of medicine: The government of India has set up ministry of AYUSH to boost research and development in the fields of traditional Indian medical branches of Ayurveda, Yoga, Homeopathy, Naturopathy, etc. Companies can work with communities to promote the same and create an ancillary to the mainstream healthcare system.
Motivating the primary health centre staff by providing them good infrastructure and enabling the community to recognize their efforts. In our experience, ingredient which enabling communities to accept better nutrition, hygiene, sanitation are achieved only when the community takes ownership of the effort.
Government has very important role through regulatory framework, the sector needs a paradigm shift in the way different stakeholders of the industry, including private and public companies think. For Indian corporates, this is an opportunity by building trust, create awareness to take ownership of preventive healthcare steps. This is a golden opportunity for Corporates to create such environment in villages.
This article was taken from here.