In Mumbai, there is gender bias in sickness too

mumbai: for a city which is touted as the most progressive one in the country, mumbai does not seem to be giving a fair deal to its women_ _especially in terms of health services and facilities. a recent study conducted by the centre for enquiry into health and allied themes (cehat) shows a huge gender bias not only in the morbidity (physical and mental illness) of the population, but also with regards to treatment.the study, for instance, pegs the monthly prevalence of illness among men at 169 per thousand, while the figure is as high as 571 for women. ``no previous household study has reported such a high morbidity,'' states the report. conducted by researchers sunil nandraj, neha madhiwalla, roopashri sinha and amar jesani, the study surveyed families living in kurla, l ward. of the 430 households covered by the survey, 60 per cent belonged to the lower income group, 30 per cent to the middle income group and 10 per cent to the higher income group. cutting across these economic lines, the study found that despite the higher morbidity among women, household expenditure on ailing women was just a fraction of what was spent on men. ``in fact, the medical expenditure on most married women is less than half spent on their husbands,'' the study said. around 46 per cent of the housewives who fall ill do not take any treatment, found the survey. ``the figures do not vary considerably even with the woman's employment status or educational level,'' it said. in other words, while around 94 per cent of the episodes of male illnesses were treated, not more than 65 per cent of female illnesses were treated. ``the low status of women in the household and society leads to the different patterns of treatment,'' felt the researchers. in fact, among the episodes of illness that went untreated among women, 22 per cent were because of financial problems and another 20 per cent because the disease was a chronic, long term one. but amongst males, only 12 per cent of the instances go untreated for financial reasons and just six per cent for it being a chronic one. interestingly, the study found that incidence of home remedies or buying medicines without a prescription were nearly double among women than men. although over half the cases of female morbidity are either due to reproductive problems or weakness, aches and pains, around 39 per cent of the gynaecological problems go untreated. ``although weakness affected 95 per cent of the women who fell ill, the lowest expenditure was incurred in treating this condition,'' it said. there is a lopsided expenditure on non-illness episodes too__91 per cent of the expenditure is spent on delivery while the nine months of pregnancy account for a bare 6.56 per cent. the study also found that 20 per cent of the deliveries were still being conducted at home. the report, which is perhaps among the few studies to document the health of housewives, noted a strong relationship between the illness and the woman's nature of work. it noticed a higher morbidity among married women, denoting that reproductive labour had a telling effect on female health, especially due to the living conditions and general degradation of health. but despite the high morbidity, as many as 32 per cent of the episodes of illness go untreated, largely because of financial reasons or due to the inaccessibility of health facilities. indeed, despite the vast network of public health institutions, people throng to the private sector for nearly 85 per cent of the illness episodes. even if public sector facilities are used, people prefer going to hospitals rather than dispensaries or public health posts. ``the primary centres are either short of medicines or doctors, or have inconvenient timings,'' said the researchers.