Impact of Globalization & Liberalization on Women’s Health in India- Future Strategies

The liberalization and globalization has impacted all areas of living setting in a chain of pervasive changes. The era of economic reforms in India since 1990 has had far reaching effects on issues of gender & society. Globalization is associated with free trade, free mobility of both financial and real capital, and rapid diffusion of products, technologies, and information and consumption patterns. In a democracy, the greatest good of the greatest number is the accepted guiding principle. Social and economic inequality is detrimental to the health of any society. Especially when the society is diverse, multicultural, overpopulated and undergoing rapid but unequal economic growth. There are obviously tensions within classes and communities, and therefore what ensures good quality for one group may not do the same for others. Gender inequalities pervade through the entire spectrum of society. The sociocultural determinants of women’s health have played a lead role in the persistence and strengthening of health inequalities. This paper attempts to review the effects of growing socioeconomic inequality in Indian population and its effect on the healthcare system. It tries to identify the factors responsible for the difficulties in healthcare delivery in an unequal society and its effect on the health of a society.The primary challenge to health empowerment and socio-economic rights stems from poverty & underdevelopment. The paper analyses the impact of globalization & liberalization on women’s health in the patriarchal Indian culture. It compares & contrasts both the positive and negative outcomes. It is written in Indian context from the women's standpoint. The paper defines the concepts of globalization, the various structural adjustments & trends in the economic world & its interrelationship with the implications for women’s health in India . It then examines the processes whereby globalization impacts upon the health of women & summarizes the overall impact presenting strategies for future. The women’s empowerment in the health sector needs to be redefined. The empowerment approach in health has to move beyond describing men and women’s health in isolation and brings into the analysis of how gender differences, exposure to risk, access to benefits of technology and health care, rights & responsibilities and the control exercised by people over their lives have been altered by globalization. The issue of sex ratio, son preferences, early marriage, poor health and nutrition, maternal mortality etc has been reviewed in the transitional Indian society.