Life Expectancy Rate and Health Facilities in Kachchh District

Abstract

After earthquake due to industrialization, population is growing; so many private hospitals have opened for treatment of different diseases. But the rural areas are deprived of health facilities. In rural areas, 55.50% samples of families agreed that they had suffered from one or the other type of addiction.   About 75% samples of rural families do not get pure drinking water. About 72% samples of families agree that they live in polluted areas in post earthquake. The life expectancy at birth in India is 64.7 for 2005–2010, according to United Nations. In selected areas of Kachchh region, average age is nearly 60 years, which can not be said to be satisfactory.   Due to lack of proper health facilities at the door step in rural areas more people died due to general disease but since in urban areas all facilities are available at the door step, so the ratio of death due to general disease is very low. People in general are victim to blood pressure and diabetes in Kachchh region, the reasons being poor quality of water, hypertension, unfavorable environment and effluents discharged by factories. It is observed in the post decade of earthquake, Child mortality (below 1 year) has reduced by about 50%. The main cause for reduced child mortality is “parent’s awareness”. The life expectancy in selected areas for all people was 58.12 years in the pre decade period of earthquake but for male, it was 56.46 years and for female, it was 60.60 years. In the post decade of earthquake, life expectancy for all people is 59.01. For male, it is the same as in pre decade (56.41) but for female, it is

63.25. Another point worth noting is that there is not much variation in life expectancy between the rural and urban areas in spite of the fact that comparatively little health facilities are available in the rural areas. Some rural people argue that the diet of rural people is simple and natural so they maintain good life expectancy, whereas in urban areas, the diet is fatty and artificial but they maintain life expectancy due to health facilities and better medical care. It is found that the age index was 0.552 pre earthquake, which increased to 0.567 after the earthquake period.