Delivering healthcare to over a billion people is a very complex challenge. Even after decades of freedom, India is struggling to provide basic health services to its people. According to government sources, in India 45 children die every hour due to respiratory infections. 1 child dies every 2 minutes due to diarrhoea. And annually, about 2 million children under 5 years of age die due to preventable diseases.
The situation calls for timely care and diagnosis which can reduce the incidence of morbidity and mortality especially among children and women.
Taal works in close collaboration with our partner organisations to secure accessible and quality maternal and child healthcare among marginalised communities in remote rural areas and slums through standalone camps and also help implement secure and quality healthcare services in India. We work towards identifying the root causes of healthcare challenges, provide innovative solutions, healthcare services to meet the immediate health care needs of the marginalized community.
Taal also offering comprehensive health services – curative, preventive, promotive and referral, to a large number of people in selected intervention areas and also multi-disciplinary projects include gynaecological, paediatric, ophthalmology and surgical services etc., whereas other interventions can be general in nature.
The uniqueness of the model lies in its comprehensive approach where health promotion and prevention are given equal importance while curative care is administered.
Taal believes that a healthy mother and a healthy baby is the route to a productive, developed nation. Hence, Taal has specially focused upon providing comprehensive solutions to address public health problems. We promote essential new born care and immunisation, reduce malnutrition, prevent infant and maternal deaths and protect those affected by or susceptible to HIV/ AIDS and TB. Taal works closely with its partners to achieve good health care for everyone.
Healthcare facts in India
As much as 500 million of India’s total population live below the poverty level. These families live in living standards that are among the poorest in the world. Thousands of mothers, newborn babies and children in India die every year from preventable diseases. 27% of deaths of children below age 5 are because of prematurity, 14% due to respiratory infections and 11% due to diarrhoea. 66% of the rural population in India lacks access to preventive medicines.
Healthcare is, by far, out of a poor man’s reach. About 75% of healthcare resources are concentrated in urban areas, where only 27% of the total population resides. 31% of the rural population in India has to travel over 30 km to get even the most urgent medical treatment. About 40% of the population in the metropolitan and large cities live in urban slums, where primary healthcare is provided by health posts. Most of the health posts are located outside the slum areas, making accessibility difficult.
Healthcare is every child’s right but problems like lack of quality infrastructure, shortage of experienced medical functionaries and non-access to basic medicines and medical facilities avert its reach to over 60% of the child population in India. The need of the hour is to work collectively towards promoting health in areas, where the poor children manage to survive.
Nutrition facts in India
As per studies, one in three of the world’s malnourished children lives in India. In India, each year, an estimated 27 million children are born—nearly 2 million of which do not survive the fifth birthday. A major cause of this is malnourishment. Over 200 million people in India do not have access to good food, and more than 40% of the children who manage to survive beyond the age five are malnourished. In India, 46% of all children below the age of three are too small for their age, 47% are underweight and at least 16% are wasted. Millions of poor children in India do not receive immunization. 79% of children under age 3 suffer from anaemia. More than 50% of children have poor learning capacity because of iodine deficiency.
Due to inadequate intake of essential nutrients, malnourished children experience several problems, including delays in development, weight-loss and other illnesses. In young children, undernourishment can greatly compromise the immune system, making them highly susceptible to infectious diseases. Besides this, it causes severe growth implications and cognitive implications like memory deficiency, low IQ scores, impaired school performance, and learning disabilities.
Underprivileged children are at a higher risk for various short-term and long-term complications as they experience several macronutrient and micronutrient deficiencies since the time of birth. In fact, it is before birth that many children and their mothers face complications, due to undernourishment. Girls are more at risk of undernourishment than boys because of their inferior social status.
Every year, thousands of women die due to negligible intake of essential nutrients during pregnancy. The child and maternal mortality rates for India are amongst the highest in the world. It is believed that malnutrition alone causes 50% of infant and maternal deaths.