According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), health is defined as:
Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well being and not merely absence of disease or infirmity.
Good health of an individual is important in order to ensure happiness and our ability to work. There are many factors which affect our health. Some of these factors like balanced diet, clean water and clean environment have a positive impact on health while others such as disease causing organisms and unhygienic conditions have a negative effect on our health.
Balanced diet, personal hygiene and regular exercise are very important to maintain good health. Yoga has been practiced since time immemorial to achieve physical and mental health. Awareness about diseases and their effect on different bodily functions, vaccination (immunization) against infectious diseases, proper disposal of wastes, control of vectors and maintenance of hygienic food and water resources are necessary for achieving good health.
Disease :Disease is a malfunctioning process related to a certain part of the whole body in which normal functions are disturbed or damaged. Disease literally means not at ease
Disease may be the sickness of the body or the mind. A disease can be as mild as a sore throat, common cold, and stomach upset or as serious as cancer. Disease can strike almost any part of the body and anybody at some stage or the other. They can also affect a person‘s mental and emotional health.
Deficiency diseases :The diseases which occur due to deficiency of one or more nutrients (proteins,carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals) in our diet are called deficiency diseases.
The overall ability of the host to fight the disease-causing organisms, conferred by the immune system is called immunity. Immunity is of two types: (i) Innate immunity and (ii) Acquired immunity.
Innate Immunity :-Innate immunity is non-specific type of defence that is present at the time of birth. This is accomplished by providing different types of barriers to the entry of the foreign agents into our body.
Acquired immunity, on the other hand, is pathogen specific. It is characterized by memory. This means that our body when it encounters a pathogen for the first time produces a response called primary response which is of low intensity.
Human Health Plays a crucial role in the Human Development.Even though human development is a broad concept with infinite dimensions, it is said that at all levels of development, there are three basic ones: a long and healthy life, access to knowledge, and a decent standard of living. Without these basic dimensions, other dimensions such as political freedom, the ability to participate in one’s community, self respect and so on will often remain inaccessible.
Under Article 47 of the constitution of India it is the duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health.The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties and, in particular, the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health.
The first Human Development Report was published in 1990,States human development as a process of enlarging people’s choices and enhancing their capabilities. The process concerns the creation of an enabling environment in which people can develop their full potential and live productive and creative lives according with their needs, interests and own values. In this sense, human development paradigm promotes well-being in a society.Human development is a process of enlarging people’s choices. The most critical ones are to lead a long and healthy life, to be educated and to enjoy a decent standard of living. Additional choices include political freedom, guaranteed human rights and self-respect.Human development has to be development of the people, by the people, for the people. Human development is about creating an environment in which people can develop their full potential and lead productive, creative lives in accord with their needs and interests.
The HDI was created to emphasize that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone. The HDI can also be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with different human development outcomes. These contrasts can stimulate debate about government policy priorities.
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the following three dimensions:-
a. A long and healthy life, as reflected in life expectancy at birth.
b. The acquisition of education and knowledge, as reflected in the mean years of schooling (adjusted for out of school children) and literacy rate (age 7 years and above).
c. Th e standard of living and command over resources, as reflected in the monthly per capita expenditure adjusted for inflation and inequality.
India’s human development index (HDI) ranking for 2015 puts India ranked as 131 out of 188 countries. Asia’s third largest economy is among a group of countries classed as “medium” in the list, as opposed to “low” in the 1990s, which is largely due to an increase in life expectancy and mean years of schooling in the past 25 years.
The following are the reasons to keep India at the bottom of human development
(a) rapid increase in population
(b) large number of adult illiterates and low gross enrollment ratio
(c) high drop- out rates
(d) inadequate government expenditure on education and health,
(e) large proportion of under weight children as well as under nourished people
(f) very poor sanitation facilities and low access to essential life saving medicines.
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