Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures: A Call for Equitable Healthcare

Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures: A Call for Equitable Healthcare

– Dr Shaheer Abdulla, Ajmer

World Health Day (7^th April) always brings a sense of hope—a chance to celebrate the progress and dream of a future where everyone can enjoy good health. The theme for this year, ‘Healthy Beginnings, Hopeful Futures’, reminds us that every new life and each day is full of promise. It inspires us to build a world where every child born has access to care and every family feels supported right from the start. This day nudges us to reflect upon our achievements and challenges, and encourages us to work towards a future where healthcare is not a privilege but a right.

As I continue my work in palliative care, I see a side of our healthcare system that fills me with both hope and deep concern. In India, just about 30% of our population live in the cities and enjoy access to nearly 75% of our doctors, hospitals, and modern treatments. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the population who live in rural areas are left with basic, often failing, healthcare services. In our cities, mothers receive regular checkups and have safe deliveries, while in remote villages, many women face childbirth without any support. Every seven seconds, a preventable death of a woman or a newborn occurs globally, and this statistic represents real lives lost and families shattered.

Prior my foray into palliative care, I believed that medicine was mainly about curing diseases and saving lives using the latest available treatment options and technology. However, my journey in palliative care has taught me that healing goes far beyond just medical interventions. True care is found in the compassion we show, in the time we take to listen, and in the willingness to be present for someone who feels forgotten by the system. I learnt that one’s deepest suffering often comes not from one’s physical pain alone, but from loneliness and the feeling of being abandoned.

I remember one instance in particular which changed me forever. A nurse from the neighbourhood wanted me to visit Lakshmi (name changed), a 97-year-old woman who lived just two kilometers away from my home. Lakshmi lived alone in a small, crumbling house with a leaking roof. Her severe osteoarthritis caused her great agony every time she took a step. To make things worse, she had no family to rely on and had no access to regular medical care. When I arrived, I thought that my primarily role was to provide her with some medicines to ease her physical pain. However, as I sat down with Lakshmi and listened, I realized that what she needed most was someone to care—someone to acknowledge her pain and her life. Her eyes were filled with tears, not just from the discomfort she felt, but from the relief of knowing that someone was finally there for her. In that quiet moment, I understood that healthcare is not just about the treatments, but that it was about seeing the person behind the pain and ensuring that they never felt alone.

This experience, along with the harsh realities of our healthcare disparities, weighs heavily on my heart, even now. How many elderly people must suffer in silence, unseen and unheard? How many mothers in rural areas will be forced to endure childbirth without proper care? How many newborns will never get the chance to breathe because essential services are out of reach? These are NOT distant issues; they are our urgent challenges.

This World Health Day, I feel the need for a renewed call to action. This day is a reminder that while hope is our starting point, we must back it up with realistic and effective action plans to bring about a real change. We need to invest in better healthcare for our rural communities, build hospitals, train more doctors and other healthcare professionals, and ensure that every elder person, every mother, and every child are able to receive the care they deserve.

For this, integrating palliative care into the country’s public health system is crucial. The National Programme for Palliative Care (NPPC) is currently being implemented and provides a promising framework for change. However, much more remains to be done. Strengthening community-based palliative and general healthcare initiatives across the country, enhancing the training of healthcare professionals, and ensuring sustainable funding and policy support are vital steps in making quality palliative care accessible to every individual—especially those in under-served rural areas.