One of the largest problems when it comes to health care in India is its availability in rural areas. In an article by Sandeep Singh it is found that around 86% of medical visits in India are made by the rural population and a majority of rural people have to travel more than 100 km to get to a healthcare facility (Singh, 2014). With this, mobile clinics become a crucial aspect in rural villages, delivering much-needed healthcare. Sanjeevini is a mobile clinic that travels to rural villages. It is made up of a team of three male doctors, who view around 20-25 patients every hour, focusing on infections and illnesses. Providing healthcare to rural communities is a universal need, even in the United States, though we may not see it, there are people who struggle getting access to medical care. Due to this global issue, the Sanjeevini mobile clinic stood out to me during my field experiences here in Mysore and I believe it focuses on an important healthcare topic that occurs in every country around the world. 

 

When bringing healthcare to rural areas, like the Sanjeevini mobile clinic, a challenge that occurs is making sure all healthcare is available or provided. While visiting Sanjeevini, several of the doctors mentioned that there have been no cases of cancer in the areas they have visited. In India, it is estimated that cancer has a prevalence of 97 per 100,000 persons that is 1 for every 1,030 people (Rajpal, 2018, p.1). Though it may be true that the Sanjeevini doctors have not found a cancer case, it could also be due to not testing village members for cancer, therefore not knowing whether or not they have it. This is a global challenge when bringing healthcare to rural areas, many times a limited amount of healthcare is provided, not giving medical attention to certain areas, such as cancer testing. Another challenge that occurs with the Sanjeevini mobile clinic is healthcare towards women and children with HIV. India is the third largest population of HIV/AIDS with 2.5 million, 40% of that population being women and 3.5% being children (Mothi, 2016, p. 19). Again, without having testing for HIV/AIDs we do not know the transmission and spreading that could be occurring. There could be several patients in the rural villages Sanjeevini attends who are HIV positive but have no knowledge of it, this could lead to parent to child transmission. These are some of the challenges that occur with the Sanjeevini mobile clinic and bringing medical care to rural areas, making sure all areas of care are being provided.

 

Due to Indian culture, many women are shy or timid when it comes to seeking medical treatment. This is due to India being a male dominant society, where in many cases women are in charge of the looking after the household. Many women also tend to put their family first, ignoring health signs and not reaching out for treatment. This can cause issues for mobile clinics such as Sanjeevini when providing medical care for rural areas. Since Sanjeevini consists of three male doctors, women may not feel comfortable being treated by them or speaking about certain health issues with them since they are not family members or a spouse, again this due to the cultural beliefs in India. This creates an importance of not only bringing healthcare to rural areas, but making sure it reaches men, women, and children. The doctors of Sanjeevini did take notice of this issue and are looking for a female nurse to join their clinic, in hopes to make women more open to asking for treatment. Due to the large amounts of travel and being the only woman traveling with three men it has been very difficult finding a nurse for the Sanjeevini clinic. Until a nurse is found limited amounts of women are going to seek treatment. It is important to understand cultural beliefs such as women’s limited interactions with men, to assure that women are given the health care needed. It is the Sanjeevini clinic’s job to assess these cultural beliefs and make sure women are receiving just as much medical care as men because women keep a household together.

 

Healthcare is always evolving, new procedures and medications are constantly coming out, but without having access to these new inventions, what is the point of creating them? For example, ART’s and other medications have been created to help limit the effects of HIV/AIDS but only 50% of adults and 33% of children with HIV are taking these medications in India (avert.org). As I have said before limited access to healthcare in rural areas is a global issue, you cannot have medications without people to treat. The Sanjeevini clinic is one of several mobile clinics that bring health care to rural villages. Through the field experience, it was found that the Sanjeevini mobile clinic was the only direct medical care available in the villages it visited. With that is was also found that the clinic lacked certain medical services, such as HIV and cancer testing. By viewing some of their previous cases it seemed that some of the medical issues they have treated could have been due to cancer. This occurs all over the world in rural areas who do not have access to every medical treatment. 

 

Due to this being a global issue, I have to remain realistic in my role when It comes to addressing healthcare in rural areas. Supporting groups such as Sanjeevini is a role I can play in tackling this issue. Raising funds or donating utilities are ways to help Sanjeevini and other mobile clinics, assuring that they will be able to supply the best quality care to rural areas. Finding specialists who can provide care in different healthcare fields, from the various cancers to HIV and diabetes, is very helpful, providing rural villages access to all types of healthcare. Overall the best way to help the lack of healthcare in rural areas is to support mobile clinics such as Sanjeevini. 

 

Sources:

 

Singh, S., and Badaya, S. (2014). Health care in rural India: A lack between need and feed.South Asian Journal of Cancer. Retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4014652/

 

Rajpal, S., Kumar, A., Joe, W. (2018). Economic burden of cancer in India: Evidence from cross-sectional nationally representative household survey, 2014. PLoS ONE, 13. Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=128188215&site=eds-live

 

Mothi, S. N., Lala, M. M., Tappuni, A. R. (2016). HIV/AIDS in women and children in India. Oral diseases, 22. Retrieved from https://login.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edswsc&AN=000374973200005&site=eds-live

 

HIV and AIDS in India. (2017). Retrieved from https://www.avert.org/professionals/hiv-around-world/asia-pacific/india