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Stop TB-Fight poverty : An Indian Perspective
Tuberculosis in India: (2)
Tuberculosis and Women’s
Health
Jackie Jackson Joint UK Coordinator of Institute for Indian mother and Child (UK), in an article entitled Multiple disadvantages: India, women’s health and tuberculosis, enlists the factors that make Indian women more susceptible to TB. Poverty whom she describes as the main cause of TB, affects 70% of women worldwide compared to 30% of men. Poverty predisposes women to poor living conditions and nutrition and renders them vulnerable to disease and infection. Research has shown that in their reproductive years (15 –49 years), women are at greater risk of developing the disease after infection than men at the same age. They may also be exposed more to TB than their men folk due to their particular duties and tasks. Besides these physical consideration the shame and stigma of disease affects women more-to the point where women commonly keep their diseased state a secret and unmarried girls fear that it will affect their marriage chances.
As regards the pattern of early marriage in both the major communities of the country, young brides are encouraged to begin a family early on. It reduces women’s financial independence-which she would be able to use to good effect were she to develop the disease.
Clearly tackling TB in India raises many questions about the socio-economic and political structures within society. Can TB be tackled in India without tackling behaviors in the society, such as the low status of female, she asks? Certainly a husband or a father with TB puts an enormous strain on the family whenever it threatens his wage earning powers, however she warns that social cost to the family is much higher when the disease affects mother. Her need to attend treatment programmes takes her away from the children, the cost of treatment cuts into family budget and a child is at a 3-10 times greater risk of dying within two years if he/she loses their mother than those with both parents alive. She suggests that TB programmes in future shall not use the medical model instead tackle all factors operating on women with respect to disease side by side. The multiple disadvantages for women in India that operate through gender and associated factors will only be addressed by first understanding their role in both infection, disease and treatment stages and then formulating successful strategies to reduce their influence. Therefore solutions that apply to both women and men should be implemented.
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