Health and Morbidity in North Bengal: A Field Report from Mahipal Village in Phansidewa Block

Abstract

The Alma Ata declaration of which India was a signatory promised Health for all by 2000 AD, in the year 2016 we find the government still grappling with problems of infant and maternal mortality. Tuberculosis is on the rise and new health issues like those related to environment, increasing use of pesticides and occupational hazards all contribute to the vulnerable health status of our people, leading to increasing levels of morbidity. At the same time rural people lack access to quality health care and those belonging to the poorer sections are prone to different types of morbidity due to their poor health. The present study tries to understand health and morbidity by taking up a village in the Phansidewa block of Siliguri subdivision in North Bengal.