Trends in Health Indiacators of Women

Abstract

Health is an asset to man and to his community and has to be regarded as aprerequisite to socio-economic development. The active role of women in the development of agriculture, animal husbandry, village cottage industries and several other facets of rural life besides the home and family is well established and is a known fact. It would be not proper to think of economic development in rural areas, without active involvement and participation of the women folk in the development programmes. Women’s poor health and nutritional status in India are in extricable bound up withsocial, cultural and economic factors, a women’s health affects the household economic well-being, as a women in poor health will be less productive in the labour force. Available evidence in India pointed to poor health status among women. Though India has made considerable progress in social and economic development, in recent decades such improvement in life expectancy, infant mortality and literacy demonstrate it lagged behind in the improvement of women’s health. The present paper attempts to analyse the health status of rural women in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu.