Impact of Culture and Socioeconomics on Women's Healthcare in India

This essay examines the multifaceted aspects of women's health in India, highlighting the significant influence of cultural practices and socioeconomic disparities. It addresses how gender inequality, deeply rooted in Indian society, affects women's access to healthcare services, leading to poorer health outcomes. The analysis includes the underreporting of illnesses by women due to cultural norms and the limitations they face in mobility, further hindering their access to essential health services. The essay concludes that cultural traditions and socioeconomic factors disproportionately affect women's health in India, underscoring the need for targeted interventions to improve their overall well-being. Desklib provides a platform to access more such assignments and study resources.

Lady’s health in India
The women’s health in India can be viewed in a variety of ways which often vary
socioeconomically and culturally. In India, women face myriad of problems which range
from gender, ethnic and class disparities which affect health outcomes. There is gender bias
in access to health care with women being the weaker sex. According to the World economic
forum, it signifies that India has the worst forms of gender inequality gaps (Raj, 2011). This
gender inequality gaps translates to poor access to health care services thus deteriorating the
overall quality of health.
The gender inequality against women often depicts poor health outcome. Studies have
shown that hospitals rates have more men frequency than women. The observed difference in
health care access is often noted due to the women being entitled to limited resources in the
household which limits them in access to health resources compared to men, (Sen, 2012).
Furthermore, Indian women have been found to frequently underreport illness. The
underreporting has often led to the contribution of cultural norms. The gender perspective has
often influenced the usage of antenatal care and health care immunizations, (Balarajan et al.,
2011). Gender mobility has often affected mobility for access services. They often have
difficulty in traveling to public places compared to men, (Mechakra-Tahiri et al., 2012). In
conclusion, it is evident that cultural practices and tradition in India greatly affects health
outcomes. Women tend to be majorly affected by this aspect more compared to men thus
lowering the overall quality of health.
References
Balarajan, Y., Selvaraj, S., & Subramanian, S. V. (2011). Health care and equity in India. The
Lancet, 377(9764), 505-515.
Mechakra-Tahiri, S. D., Freeman, E. E., Haddad, S., Samson, E., & Zunzunegui, M. V.
(2012). The gender gap in mobility: a global cross-sectional study. BMC public
health, 12(1), 598.
Raj, A. (2011). Gender equity and universal health coverage in India. The Lancet, 377(9766),
618-619.
Sen, G., & Iyer, A. (2012). Who gains, who loses and how: leveraging gender and class
intersections to secure health entitlements. Social science & medicine, 74(11), 1802-
1811.